{"id":46190,"date":"2015-08-22T22:13:49","date_gmt":"2015-08-22T22:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=46190"},"modified":"2015-08-22T22:22:13","modified_gmt":"2015-08-22T22:22:13","slug":"on-the-shoulders-of-giants-mertons-otsog-illustrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=46190","title":{"rendered":"On the Shoulders of Giants — Merton’s OTSOG illustrated?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — I first saw the fish on @arlogilbert’s Twitter page, and I think <\/em>I saw the turtle on someone’s FB? ]
\n.<\/p>\n

The Turtle has gotta be a giant if it’s to carry elephants and a world on its back..<\/p>\n

\"SPEC<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

and moving from macro to micro, the Fish had best be sizeable if it’s to carry an island and village.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

There are those who delight in the Turtle Hypothesis<\/strong>, but throw in a tiger atop the elephants, then extend the concept to encompass turtle upon turtle, Mr Justice Scalia <\/strong>(in Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 715 [2006]. footnote 14<\/a>) for instance:<\/p>\n

In our favored version, an Eastern guru affirms that the earth is supported on the back of a tiger. When asked what supports the tiger, he says it stands upon an elephant; and when asked what supports the elephant he says it is a giant turtle. When asked, finally, what supports the giant turtle, he is briefly taken aback, but quickly replies “Ah, after that it is turtles all the way down.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Likewise, there are those who reject it, as for example David Hume<\/strong> in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion<\/a><\/p>\n

How can we satisfy ourselves without going on in infinitum<\/em>? And, after all, what satisfaction is there in that infinite progression? Let us remember the story of the Indian philosopher and his elephant. It was never more applicable than to the present subject. If the material world rests upon a similar ideal world, this ideal world must rest upon some other; and so on, without end. It were better, therefore, never to look beyond the present material world.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Never to look beyond the present material world?<\/em> <\/p>\n

Tsk, that’s a bit short-sighted, isn’t it?<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Which brings me to Robert K. Merton<\/strong>‘s brilliant book familiarly known as OTSOG<\/a>, which I’ve read, and Tristram Shandy<\/a>, which I haven;t but would presumably like.<\/p>\n

As the saying goes, Odd Moves in a Mysterious Way<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I’m also reminded of the Hendrix Hedge<\/strong><\/a>, but that’s another story..<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
  • World on a tutle, The Science Behind Discworld’s Flat Earth on the Back of a Turtle<\/a>\n
  • Island on a fish, Voted most likely to find a loophole<\/a><\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    [ by Charles Cameron — I first saw the fish on @arlogilbert’s Twitter page, and I think I saw the turtle on someone’s FB? ] . The Turtle has gotta be a giant if it’s to carry elephants and a world on its back.. and moving from macro to micro, the Fish had best be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[526,627,51,218,778,1284,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-charles-cameron","category-doublequotes","category-history","category-philosophy","category-photography","category-supreme-court","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46190"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46258,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46190\/revisions\/46258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}