Lyric Philosophy by Jan Zwicky (review)

268 LETTERS IN CANADA 1992 Toronto Studies in IJhilOSIJPttV Universitv of Toronto Press. $25.00 paper 566. 1.2 phi.los4::>ptllV desires to to whole but for this langui!lge of thou~l:'l.t would itself have to be made whole. p Plato: The real concern ...""..''''.........."., inward self make up the inward into a unified the this person will be who calls any course of action is not with external actions but with a has bound the elements harmonious and and so for action of any kind. The person means that the action contributes HUMANITIES 269 person will call such conditions ofwholeness or 2.1 Kec:ept:iVllty to CUlmtUalClVl21V resonat2 .2 The intuition of coherence is what drives vision of any mU=gr::ltlve: e),prE~ssi(>n that sort. The delineation of if acrliev'ed. enacts and aC'ilmC1lwiedl~es a web of em.oOjOIl2lJ, percepituBlI, cOInp:rel1len:stoln. ~1)mlE![nm2: that for an instant and heart with the eye and the mind. and tOI a wholeness that is not additive. p 3.1 are o;Ju................... ,.......... to plo'ne~~r ...,.n.,U;'lFt'" phlllm;opihy 270 LETTERS IN CANADA 1992 Newtonian time is characterized by Zwicky as having a single axis of connectedness (#3); it is unidimensional (#3); it is conceptually hierarchi- . cal (#2). 'Arguments are of time; they cannot be unfolded' (#8). 'Newtonian time is the idea of an Wlbranching path, a limited-access highway. It is the idea that things move only in this direction (or possibly its reverse) (#272, p 492). But this view of the structure of argument as exhibiting Newtonian time seems extraordinarily weak. Newtonian time is continuous time, and the structure of valid arguments do not exhibit the characteristic features of continuity which make it accessible directly to the intuition, and paradoxical , yea, virtually impenetrable, to analytic grasp. (These features, we would now say, include denseness and nondenumerability of the points on the linear continuum. True, Newton didn't have access to the concept of nondenumerability, for one, but he was highly concerned with those rich features of the continuum which give it its allure, and led to the concept of nondenumerability.) In any case, think of the continuum in the shape of a closed unit interval. Superimpose a valid argument on this shape. Perhaps the conclusion is the end point and the premises include the zero point and some points in between. But then continuity has been drastically abstracted from, and a mere finite series has been substituted. Can we US~ 'the form Newtonian time' to mean 'the form of a finite, well orderE!d series'? Hardly. If Zwicky means 'the form of a finite well-ordered series' by 'the form of Newtonian time,' she has chosen the wrong metaphor, especially given Newton's interest in, and contribution to, our understanding of the rich, infinitary aspect of the continuum. But perhaps Zwicky uses Newtonian time to contrast with relativistic time. In a relativistic account of time, there are no absolutely simultaneous events. In a Newtonian account of time there are. Thus, rather than using Newtonian time to suggest quantized time, or segments of the continuum, or a fine, well-ordered abstract from the continuum, perhaps Zwicky means by the form of Newtonian time, the form of - the form of what? We want the form of a series in which absolute simultaneity is possible. But now we need to substitute a metaphor of our own devising in order to picture what Zwicky might be thinking of as Newtonian time for the purpose of depicting the form of argumentation. Zwicky uses the metaphor of a branching river (#2). But the metaphor of a single branching structure won't really do, as the branches issue from a single source. What's Isimultaneous' with that source? Yet whatever event occurs in Newtonian time can have events absolutely simultaneous with it. Perhaps, then, one might suggest a forest of trees in which each node issuing in a branch is at exactly the height of the corresponding other nodes. But is it an accurate depiction of the form of valid argument? For one thing, the simultaneity-providing features of the metaphor seem to...