[MD] Gravity

[skutvik at online.no]

Hi Marsha

Fri. April 4 you wrote: 

> In Our Times has a program on Newton's Laws of Motion.  It seems that
> gravity did exist before Newton.  But it was thought gravity was caused by
> ether, invisible fluid, or the earth being magnetic.

The Newton example is not about things not falling to the ground 
before Newton, but about us being cock sure that the gravity 
explanation has been there - always - only for Newton to 
discover....etc. Hopefully the said program enlightened its viewers 
about when the concept "gravity" came into usage, because my guess 
is that it is part of modernity (SOM). And, yes, the very point is that this 
tendency was caused by something else than gravity. However those 
causes you mention - magnetism, ether, invisible fluid - sound quite 
recent and "scientific". Anyway note that Pirsig gives another example 
of the "theories create reality" phenomenon by Phlogiston.  Yes, even 
his platypus example is the same thing in another wrapping. 
Consequently there is no unaffected moon "up there". In the case of a 
metaphysics - a theory of everything - it encompasses everything. To 
the cave inhabitants the lights in the sky were goddesses and gods 
while they - to us - are planets and stars. 

Bo

PS
Regarding gravity, Einstein's General Relativity has another 
explanation, namely that of a "dents" in the space-time fabric caused 
by the heavenly bodies, no "gravity force" propagating through empty 
space. So the last word is not said on that issue.