Thermal Metaphysics on the Play-Set

Daniel has been periodically revisiting a thesis of his own, currently being developed, that ultimately, as heat and cold approach extremes relative to what a human can tolerate, they effectively constitute the same experience to someone who has to endure them. Rather like the popular idea, especially in academic circles, that far-left and far-right - communists and fascists, if you will - ultimately meet up and become identical. (I'm not so convinced of that, particularly in terms of economics, but that's another matter.) But the cold-heat rapprochement makes a bit more sense; we sometimes talk about getting "burnt" by ice or extreme cold, after all...

The other day, swinging on the swing-set out back, Daniel concluded his academic musings with an academic-sounding summary:

"...And so they're pretty-much the same, even though they're opposites."

(December 10, 2011)