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Showing posts from October, 2020

"Environmental Degradation, Reparations, and the Moral Significance of History" by Simon Caney

The purpose of Caney's article is to, "explore the moral implications of historic environmental injustices and, in particular, the moral implications of global climate change"(Caney 1). He wants to argue to fact that environmental issues should not be solely blamed on the "victims" but that the duty bares are those who participate in the act of injustice.     T he argument of climate change is not usually categorized with that of slavery, but in fact the main idea can be applied to both. We notice a similarity between the two when Caney gives his definition of environmental injustice. He describes it as, " as a situation in which some people either (a) lack a fair share of environmental benefits (i.e., benefits stemming from natural resources) or (b) have to bear an unfair share of environmental burdens (i.e., burdens stemming from harms to the environment)". Once I read this sentence I immediately thought about how that definition is very similar to t

"Making Time"

 In "Making Time: A Study in the Epistemology of Measurement" by Eran Tal, it introduces the idea of a model based way to standardize the physical measurement of time as a quantity case. The time standardization success is what makes this case a good way to study the relationship between measurement and knowledge. As for the definition of a second, since 1967 it has been "defined as the duration of exactly 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to a hyperfine transition of caesium-133 in the ground state (BIPM [2006], p. 113)". This definition means that there is both a standard duration of a second and a also a specific frequency that defines a second. The second part is what these standard clocks are actually measuring. These standard clocks are measuring the frequencies of certain atomic transitions. This includes the caesium that is used to defined the second in of itself. 

Einstein for Everyone

The relativity of simultaneity is a complex idea that Einstein believed according to this thought it made it so,  inertial observers in relative motion disagree on the timing of events at different places. Meaning that one observer may think that something is happening simultaneously but another may not. For this you have to be aware of the space and time with reality and how it can be manipulated to give unrealistic senses of reality.      The relativity of simultaneity is not saying that two  spatially separated events are simultaneous and neither observer has made a mistake. It is however, referring  to an internal  factor that allows for time to be preserved  differently. By changing the factors of the observer being in motion or not in  motion  makes them perceive  the events of time differently.      In Special Relativity I do not think that it makes time "unreal". I believe that it can manipulate time to be  perceived  as less of a thing and more conceptual but that do

"The Unreality of Time"

 Before reading McTaggart's article about "The Unreality of Time" I had not really given much though the the concept on time. I have however had a conversation with a few of my friends before about who came up with the concept of time and how they decided when the hours would start and what hour to begin on. I think that the concept of time is really interesting once you begin to dive deep into the topic of it and I believe that we all take time for granted and the fact that it has shaped our lives. It has constructed our days and the hours of which we function, our society has become so obsessed with time that we have allowed for it to cause us stress but also motivation. It caused us stress when we are late or we are not looking forward to doing an activity at a certain time, but it also motivates us to work hard as time has constructed the hours in which we work and then the hours we have to relax and eat. After reading the article I found myself very amazed by McTagga