Page 123: Academics Are Silly!

So it was bound to get to us here on PE eventually, Alexei of Now-Times did the honor of tagging us in a new hip thing, and god knows I am all about all things hip – here the deal then:

1. Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages)
2. Open the book to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence on that page
4. Post the next three sentences
5. Tag five people

Ok, let me see – the nearest book would be that one over there – Ezio Vailati, Leibniz & Clark: A Study of Their Correspondence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 123:

[From the section 3.1 “Leibniz’s Objections to Absolute Space and Time”]

Clarke, consistent with his libertarian views, replied that if God had a reason for creating anything at all, his mere will would be sufficient to choose a set of spatio-temporal coordinates in which to place the world.  In effect, all that Clark required is that the reasons determining the divine will do no do so causally. Leibniz, of course, disagreed, and the bulk of the debate, with a minor side-show we shall consider later, joined the discussion we have already considered in the chapter of free will.

Actually I got this book from the library to reread Leibniz’s essay on space and time, but then when I got home I realized that this is not the correspondence itself, but a commentary which prompted me to actually decide to buy a good copy of the correspondence which I did only to receive a wrong book in the mail – I guess I’ll never know what happened with Space and Time and their adventures… I don’t think I know 5 people to tag, so, since I have to run do something very important and educational, I will let Shahar and Paco (although I am not sure Paco reads much) do the honors…