Paul Nervy Notes
“Jokes, poems, stories, and a lot of philosophy, psychology, and sociology.”


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Philosophy, change.  ---  .See also:  (1) Philosophy, time.  (2) History.  (3) Psychology, personality, self.  (4) Politics, left and right.  ---  6/1/2005


Philosophy, change.  ---  .This section is about change.  Topics include: ( ) Causation.  ---  1/24/2006


Philosophy, change.  ---  (1) Change takes time.  (2) Who changes what from what into what?  (3) Change for better or worse.  (4) How much change is possible?  What can and what can not change?  (5) Nothing good lasts.  (6) Change how easily vs. how difficult the change.  (7) Change caused by what: forces of change.  (8) Amount of things or number of people affected by a change.  (9) Change with how much effort or resources used.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  (1) New: does not necessarily mean good or better.  These people ignore history.  (2) Old: does not necessarily mean good or better.  These people fear change.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  (1) The world changes.  Our bodies change.  Our minds must change to adapt to the above two.  (2) To learn is to grow.  To grow is to change.  We have the potential to grow, therefore we have an obligation to grow.  Therefore we have an obligation to change.  To learn is to change.  ---  5/30/1998


Philosophy, change.  ---  Being.  Ebb and flow of being.  Rhythms.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Causation.  (1) Related terms: Time and change.  Order and disorder.  Freewill and determinism.  Complexity.  Chaos.  (2) Focus of 18th century philosophers on causation is their attempt to explain the universe.  To ground the sciences and the study of history.  To say that everything has a physical cause.  To argue against the concepts of miracles and magic, divine intervention and spontaneous generation.  (3) There is a time element to causation.  A later event cannot cause an earlier event.  (4) There is a spatial element to causation.  No action at a distance.  Quantum physics is a counterargument to this.  (5) There can be chains and webs of causation.  ---  1/1/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Causation.  (1) Scientific view of causation.  (2) Superstitious view of causation.  Magic.  Spells.  Supernatural.  Hokum.  Bunk.  Bosh.  ---  10/27/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Causation.  Are all changes caused?  ---  10/27/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Causation.  Change defined as causation.  All changes are caused.  Understand change by understanding causation.  ---  10/27/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Cause and effect.  (1) Physical, law-like cause and effect.  For example: B always happens after A.  B never happens without A.  (2) Probabilistic cause and effect.  For example: B may happen after A, or it may not, it depends on the probabilities.  B may happen without A, if it is caused by something else.  ---  10/27/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change = time.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change and me.  How much can I change myself, and my life, for better or worse?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change and three related concepts.  (1) Change and time.  (2) Change and motion.  (3) Change and causation.  ---  10/27/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change can be of three types.  (1) Progress.  (2) Decay.  (3) Different, yet neither better nor worse.  ---  11/15/2001


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change creates the new, and the new creates the old.  ---  6/8/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change defined as motion.  Is there any change that does not involve motion?  Are all cases of motion cases of change?  Air currents move in the atmosphere.  Water currents move in the ocean.  Earth plates move on the earth crust.  The earth is moving around the sun.  The sun is moving in the milky way galaxy.  The milky way galaxy is moving in the universe.  What doesn't move?  Blood moves through my body.  Thoughts move through my brain?  What doesn't move?  ---  7/8/2002


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change in and of itself.  Change relative to another thing.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change in environment spurs change in ideas.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change is relative: change of x relative to y.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change of the person over a lifetime.  Change in body and mind.  ---  6/12/2005


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change: speed and direction.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change.  (1) Fast change vs. slow change.  (2) Change for better or change for worse.  ---  6/4/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Change.  (1) Metaphysics of change.  (A) Change and cause.  (B) Change and time.  (2) Ethics of change.  (A) People's attitudes toward change.  Liberals are pro-change.  Conservatives are contra-change.  (B) When to change?  In what cases?  ---  6/8/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Conservative (no change) vs. liberal (change).  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Decay can be slowed, growth can be increased, net growth can occur.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Ethics of change.  Develop and get goals faster.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Everything comes undone, decays.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  False views about change: Some people believe in magic or religion as a cause of change.  ---  7/16/2006


Philosophy, change.  ---  History and change.  Two views.  (1) Change makes history possible.  This view makes more sense.  If there was no change there would be no history.  (2) History makes change possible.  This view makes less sense.  History is a product of change.  ---  10/27/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  How much can a person change themselves?  How much can a person change their life?  How much can a person change the world?  ---  10/27/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  How much will you let them distort (change) your perception (metaphysics) and values (ethics), by narrowing it, twisting it, or replacing it?  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  How quickly and easily our lives can turn into a complete nightmare.  ---  06/30/1993


Philosophy, change.  ---  Inertia, fear of change, and paucity of change.  What happens is you are raised in a family and culture and nation, and you absorb the attitudes and behaviors that they hold.  And you also live with the decisions that you yourself have made in the past too.  The implicit assumption is that you, the family, and the nation are all good, and therefore the philosophical beliefs you hold are right.  To deviate from tradition, i.e. to change, is to (1) Admit you and they are wrong, and hence, not good.  (2) To be a traitor, an abandoner, and a rejecter.  (3)(A) Change also requires you to be dissatisfied.  To think there must be a better way to do things.  (B) And to believe you can be the one to think of and do things in a better way.  (4) This is why so little change happens.  This is why people don't even think of changing.  ---  9/30/1996


Philosophy, change.  ---  Instantaneous change and eternal statis are two ideas that divorce the often associated concepts of change and time.  ---  6/30/1998


Philosophy, change.  ---  Many conservatives wrongly believe the following:  (1) To quit is to lose.  A quitter is a loser.  (2) To change is to quit.  To change one's goals is to quit one's goals and views.  (3) Thus, to change is to be a loser.  ---  10/20/1999


Philosophy, change.  ---  Metaphysics of change.  When is there change?  When isn't there change?  Constant change is the nature of reality.  The world is constantly changing.  ---  6/8/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Motion and change.  Two views.  (1) All cases of motion are cases of change.  (2) All cases of change are cases of motion.  ---  10/27/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Of course we "change" a little everyday.  However, in order for a person to undergo a major change there has to be a sense of "Before X" and "After X."  For example, a permanent illness or injury; or the death of a loved one; or making a million dollars; or losing one's virginity.  The change has to be big enough for us to notice.  You have to say, "I was never the same after that.  Things were never the same after that."  That is real major change.  ---  2/25/2000


Philosophy, change.  ---  People's attitudes toward change.  Some people fear change, and thus fear progress.  ---  7/16/2006


Philosophy, change.  ---  Progress implies a dynamic world with dynamic people looking forward.  Progress does NOT imply a static world with static people looking backward.  ---  1/25/1999


Philosophy, change.  ---  Psychology and change.  Changing your views.  ---  10/27/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Some people say that life is change.  Other people say that nothing ever changes.  Lets take two extreme examples.  (1) The case of no change.  If absolutely nothing ever changed the world would be static.  (2) The case of extreme change.  (A) If absolutely everything changed in a random manner then the world would be chaos.  (B) If absolutely everything changed quickly and ceaselessly and then there would be even more change than there is in this world, and the world would be unrecognizable when you woke up each day.  ---  10/27/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Terms.  (1) Change.  (2) Birth, growth, stagnation, decay, death.  Evolution, stagnation, devolution.  (3) Origin, genesis.  Development, improvement.  Maintain, preserve.  Extinction.  (4) Existence vs. non-existence.  Replaceable vs. irreplaceable.  Loss vs. gain.  (5) Time, age.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Those who believe progress is not possible, or that we should not try to progress even if we can, are schmucks.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Three different concepts.  (1) Change vs. changelessness.  (2) Time vs. timelessness.  (3) Existence vs. no existence.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Time and change.  The amount of change is relative to time, and to a person's perception of time (their time frame).  Lets take two hypothetical examples.  (1) In one hypothetical example humans have the capability to live billions of years, and thus their perception of change varies with that life span.  (2) In another hypothetical example humans live only a billionth of a second and thus their perception of change varies with that life span.  (3) The point is that the scope of change differs if one's time frame is billions of years versus a billionth of a second.  (10/27/2004)     PART TWO.  Can humans easily perceive fast changing events that occur on the scale of a millionth of a second?  No, not without instruments.  Can humans easily perceive slow changing events that occur on the scale of millions of years.  No, not without instruments.  So perception of change is limited by the senses one uses and by the instruments one uses.  ---  12/12/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Time and change.  Two views.  (1) Change makes time possible.  (2) Time makes change possible.  ---  12/12/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Total change = sum of types and degrees of sub-changes.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Two notions.  (1) Unchanging time.  Changeless time.  (2) Instantaneous change.  Timeless change.  ---  6/4/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Two views.  (1) Nothing ever changes.  Everything stays the same.  Change is an illusion.  (2) Everything is changing.  Constant change.  Stasis is an illusion.  (3) I am more inclined to believe the latter.  ---  6/12/2005


Philosophy, change.  ---  Two ways to look at change.  (1) Change as related to time.  (2) Change as related to events.  ---  6/4/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  Types of change.  (1) Predictable vs. unpredictable.  (2) Controllable vs. uncontrollable.  (3) Rational vs. irrational.  (4) Quick vs. slow change.  (5) Forced change vs. chosen change.  (6) Old changes vs. new changes.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  Types.  Instantaneous change vs. change that takes time.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  We can gain (or lose) things we didn't realize.  We don't' know ahead of time all the things we will gain (or lose).  ---  10/25/2004


Philosophy, change.  ---  We need good, better, new stuff not old, garbage, worse stuff.  ---  12/30/1992


Philosophy, change.  ---  What does not change?  What does change?  Causes and effects of change.  Mechanisms of change.  Change for better or worse.  Degree of change, and speed of change.  ---  12/30/1992




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Paul Nervy Notes. Copyright 1988-2007 by Paul Nervy.