RE: rare halo

Hmmm. Circular logic always spins me around. Must be halo logic.
Self-evident truths hardly seem worth saying but it is a sure way to
avoid going wrong. 
Now Aristotle concluded that an accidental property of a thing was
unrelated to the essence of the thing. Therefore, if the properties of a
halo that are necessary for it to be seen are essential to its
existence, I would be wrong in defining it as an accidental occurrence.
Is there anything about a halo that is not essential to its existence?
Ie. Can it have characteristics that do not relate to what makes it
occur? 
Ok, what about its frequency of occurrence? Yikes, I see the circle
closing here.
Thus, a better term might be one be to capture the frequency issue such
as occasional, rare, infrequent, periodic, indeterminate or some such
adjective. Oops, better not use indeterminate as all of its definitions
are of a circular nature and we would be haloed again. Well, you know
what I mean. Those darn philosophers will just whip you in circles until
you see your tail coming back at you. I will be looking for more halos
in future.

Nice ducks in the mist by the way.
Rick

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alistair Fraser
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 2:49 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: rare halo

Rick,


On 16-Mar-09, at 1:27 PM, Rick Howie wrote:

> Extremely rare might
> be appropriate but perhaps not "accidental" as presumeably the halo
> could return under the right conditions.

I have long been fascinated by explanations which claim that something  
will form or something will be seen only under the right conditions.  
Hmm---I wonder---isn't that circular? Surly it is a universal truth  
that if you see something, the conditions are right to see it  
(including the condition that you are in fact looking at it). And if  
you don't see it, conditions are clearly not right to see it (even  
though you may have thought they were).

Teasing aside, it is the case that the rareness of the 18-degree halo  
does result from the rareness of the conditions needed to produce it,  
rather than from the rareness of people looking for it.

Alistair

mallards amidst steam fog




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