Time
Jeremiah Dyke
"But the temporal order in which knowledge is acquired must not be
confused with the logical simultaneity of all parts of an aprioristic
deductive system. Within such a system the notions of anteriority and
consequence are metaphorical only. They do not refer to the system,
but to our action in grasping it. The system itself implies neither
the category of time nor that of causality. There is functional
correspondence between elements, but there is neither cause nor
effect."
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"Two actions of an individual are never synchronous; their temporal
relation is that of sooner and later. Actions of various individuals
can be considered as synchronous only in the light of the physical
methods for the measurement of time. Synchronism is a praxeological
notion only with regard to the concerted efforts of various acting
men."
David
Maybe someone can help clarify some quotes from this chaper
"But the temporal order in which knowledge is acquired must not be
confused with the logical simultaneity of all parts of an aprioristic
deductive system. Within such a system the notions of anteriority and
consequence are metaphorical only. They do not refer to the system,
but to our action in grasping it. The system itself implies neither
the category of time nor that of causality. There is functional
correspondence between elements, but there is neither cause nor
effect."
That's a good of example of what I mean when I say Human Action should be translated into English.
Another one is "perpendicular triangle" earlier in the book.
OK, on to the translation: Let's look at high school geometry, an excellent example of what Mises is talking about. You learn the first day about the axioms, then as time goes on the teacher shows conclusions that can be proven from the axioms, until finally after some weeks he proves Pythagorases theorem, that in a right triangle A squared + B squared = C squared.
In the classroom, it took a few weeks to get from the axioms to Pythagoras. How about in the real world? Did right triangles "evolve" somehow from staright lines? Did it take a while for the Pythagorean theorem to "become" true?
Well, of course not. There is no time element in geometry. Pythagoras' theorem, and all the theorems, were and are always true.
That's the gist of what he's saying.
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"Two actions of an individual are never synchronous; their temporal
relation is that of sooner and later.
Actions of various individuals
can be considered as synchronous only in the light of the physical
methods for the measurement of time.
The batter who hits the ball "at the same time" the baserunner starts running is also only partially true. It's true if your measuring instrument is not totally accurate. But if you use an atomic clock or whatever, you will find one began his move a little bit after the other. [My guess is that he means this to be the case 99.99% of the time. Again, I have no idea why he considers this important. Also I don't see how it's true. I watch someone doing something at the same time he does it, right? And if I'm watching the game to make money writing an article about it, it's certainly an action].
Synchronism is a praxeological
notion only with regard to the concerted efforts of various acting
men."