I know that what I covered in the first segment of today's lecture is a lot to  absorb, it's a lot to take in. Because it's so strange to so many people. If you feel that way, welcome to The Club, we all felt that way, the first time we were ever  introduced to this stuff. And it's not unusual. So let me just review a little bit. On  the left side of the board, I said, our list of fields of inquiry and theory making  that have arisen over the last few 1000 years, they've been distinguished and  some people have written about them and read series to explain what goes on  in them. Quantitative has to do with the quantity that we experience things to  have. And we represent that by a number. So that has the science that studies  the quantity of things is mathematics. Next is spatial, we notice that the things  around us occupy space, have size have rotation, and so on. And geometry,  studies, shapes and locations and so on. There's a theory of motion, often  included in physics, but sometimes made a distinct area of study. The physical  has to do with physical characteristics of things, things like weight, mass,  density, specific gravity, whether something's a solid, liquid, or a gas, and  physical laws that relate those characteristics. Then there's there sensory  characteristics that we see to things the same color or they're smooth, hot.  Sounds are loud, and soft, and tastes are sweet or bitter, and so on. Next, we  have the area of the aspect of logic. And this is not an aspect just of our own  thinking. It's not that human thinking is governed by logical laws that we can't  deny and get around. But things around us exhibit logical properties. They do so passively, but they still do that. A thing is conceivable, logically, it's able to be  distinguished by us from something else. That's passive, but it's still logical.  Formative, I explained a little bit of viewing history as the transmission of culture, forming power, the the, our ability to turn natural materials into an artifact, make  something do. And the very next kind of discipline after that, is linguistic because one of the first things that humans did was take natural sounds, or marks, and  turn them into a system of symbols. So that we have language, that language is  an artifact. There are social relations between people, life just exhibits this stuff  to us, without us making it up. We have social relations, relations with our  parents relationships with our children, our neighbors, our fellow workers at  work, and so on. And we, there are norms of politeness, one of the major  properties or characteristics that's involved in social relations is respect. And  there are many Western different ways of showing that there are also ways of  showing disrespect that has to do with our social life. And then there's the  economic side of life. We're not always buying and selling, but anything,  whatever is potentially economically valuable or not. So a diamond buried  somewhere I don't know about it is still subject to the laws of supply and  demand and diminishing returns, even though I don't know it because I didn't dig the diamonmd up yet. Then when I if I do find it, and I have it polished,  somebody says, Well, now it's worth so many dollars are there. There's also a  law, a legal side where life where we adjudicate what is fair, and what's not. We 

look to government to make laws to set up and enforce an order of public  justice. So that has to do with finding some things to be just and others to be  unjust. We also find that some things are have aesthetic value. For example,  they may be beautiful. And we also experienced life as exhibiting that some  things are just wrong to do and others are not. We find that Does everybody  agree entirely? No. But there are fundamental insights ethical insights that have  been the same for every civilization we know about and wherever there are  people. There have always been restrictions and say you can't kill other another  human being. There always been rules about who is it is legitimate to have sex  with and there are a host of others that surround Those and in addition to them,  and people make theories about this stuff, what is it that makes something right  or wrong, then we look at that what's the basis for this ethical understanding that we just naturally have in life. And finally, things are trustworthy or not. And the  most trustworthy is the one we say we have faith in. And that's whatever we  regard as the creator of everything else. That becomes that's religious trust. So I hope that helps clarify some things a little more. Let's go back and talk for a  minute about what Thales discovered when he started to make theories, I  described his difference, his new idea of the theory as picking out characteristics that the things actually have that you're trying to explain, and the laws that might be governing it. And that's an explanation rather than likening it to human strife  or peace or love or whatever. Some of this won' t sound very compelling. Let me explain that before you pass judgment on it. When Thales reflected on that he  wanted to know what it is that is in everything. What is the basic stuff, everything is made of? He's so he assumed that at least things are made of matter. There's a stuff what is the basic nature of that stuff? And the the answer he proposed is  water. Bertrand Russell was commented that if somebody introducing  philosophy tells the class, that it began, when Thales said everything is made of  water, he will have destroyed the respect for the course and they'll never  recover. Well, I hope that's not true. Listen to his reasons, though. He's I mean,  it's it's not a true hypothesis. But here are his reasons. He stands by the  seashore, and he watches water vapor going up and forming clouds. So he  postulated the clouds are made of water. The sea is made of water, the river that comes down and empties into the sea deposits earth. At the Delta, we already  know that water can be hard as well as soft. If it gets cold, it turns to ice. Maybe  there are other conditions under which it turns into Earth. And it's the water  that's depositing the earth. So that was the way he came to the proposal. That  water is the basic stuff of which everything is made. Not a right conclusion. But  brilliantly observed and argued. He was no dummy. In fact, he established quite  a reputation in the ancient world when he visited Egypt. And the Egyptians  explained to him that their crops depend upon when the Nile overflows each  spring the Nile overflows. And we never know quite when that's going to be with  actually if we knew if we can predict when it was going to happen. We didn't 

know how to plant our go ahead and plant that the overflow would be coming.  So Thales looked at the map. And he thought about that. And he said, Oh, I can  tell you. It has to do with the wind direction when the wind is coming from the  south. Then the river flows the way it normally does. But when the wind shifts  around in the spring, and it comes from north, it piles the water of the Nile back  at the mouth. And so the river backs up and overflows its banks. So if you will  hold your crops off till you see the wind shift, when the wind shifts, you can go  plant them and then you know that within a few days or whatever it was, the  river will will irrigate them. Well the Egyptians went crazy. They thought this is  freaking brilliant. They made parties for him, they proclaimed him the Great  Wizard, and so on. But that was a theory he didn't try to explain why the Nile  overflowed by talking about Gods and Goddesses in the river or river nymphs or that love and hate were in strife. He said he looked at the properties of Nile and  what could affect it and made his theory from that. That's what has held the field  ever since. Theory making totally replaced myth making. We no longer explain  things as myths, but by abstracting the characteristics of the things and looking  at what laws apply, and drawing our conclusions. Often these different areas of  study are called sciences. That's not the way we use the term in English. That's  true, but in other languages. Each of these is for example with the Germans  called Wissenschaften, a branch of knowledge. And that's the way I'm going to  use the term we think of Sciences is only ones at the bottom of the list that do  experiments. But in another sense, every one of these is as a science it's a field  of study. And we're going to try to look at how people have made theories within  these areas. And then we're going to look at a couple of ontologies to see how  people did that, what they proposed. And then we will, after we see in next  lecture, I mean, tomorrow's lecture, that there will be a definite relation of how  people do that to what they believe is divine. That's the basis for saying there  should be a Christian approach to all this. And for saying, then, therefore, there's a Christian philosophy possible. And then we will look at one that has actually  been made, as was proposed, by Professor Herman Dooyeweerd of the Free  University of Amsterdam. Dooyeweerd died in 1977, and left a magnificent  accomplishment in showing in great detail what an ontology could look like. Like  if it's controlled by belief, in God will be, he'll be explaining the nature's of things. And one of the things that Dooyeweerd's going to tell us is that Christians ought  not to be looking for one fundamental overarching characteristic that explains  the nature of the whole of creation. It's the whole, it's not true that the whole of  creation is physical, or it's all mathematical, that those are what produce  everything else. That's true about the creation. Now, there are many different  kinds of things in the world. And there's a way to get at the nature of those  things and understand it more thoroughly. That doesn't assume that any one of  these is the nature of the Divine, the nature of the Creator, what makes them all, why they are all exists. And that's, that's how that is going to fall out. So I want to

go now to something about the nature of things and show you what some of the  puzzles are that arise and how it is different theories approach that as to outline  a contrast for you. So after we talk about what religious belief is, and how it can  relate to this process of theory making, we'll have already seen a few theories  

how they went. I already said something about Thales there are others, and we'll look at that stuff and then we'll look at what Dooyeweerd has pointed to as the  way the Christian ought to be doing this stuff. That's enough for now. You think  about this, rewind the tape and look at it again. Take your notes. I wish I could  hear your questions.