The World of Nature is ruled by equations. They express the reality of the physical laws that run the Universe (which it's wise for us to notice we did not create ourselves). In the World of Nature, "law" is a description of what will (and must) happen. We don't call it a "law" unless it has that capability.
In our human world, "law" is a "prescription," not a "description." Human laws (which it is wise to notice we do create) tell us not what will and must happen, but what we think "ought to" happen. Human laws are really just the instructions we give ourselves.
I have come up with an equation to express the derivation and impact of human laws. It's something I taught the students in my two classes at UCSC this past Fall Quarter. The more I contemplate it, the more I see something in this equation that is just as powerful (in our human world) as that famous equation is in the World of Nature.
Politics > Law > Government
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/einstein/lega-01.html
As a card-carrying math pedant, I must point out that the above is an inequality, not an equation.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the pure math perspective! I am using the word "equation" metaphorically. The dictionary on my computer, for instance, has this definition:
ReplyDeleteEQUATION:
3 Chemistry a symbolic representation of the changes that occur in a chemical reaction, expressed in terms of the formulae of the molecules or other species involved.
My "equation" is a symbolic representation of changes that occur in the political process.