[FRIAM] When are telic attributions appropriate in physical descriptions?

[Nicholas Thompson]

Dear Phellow Phriammers,

Ever since the days of Hywel White (GRHS) I have puzzled over the fact that
telic language so often appears in physics discussions.  I used to tease
Hywel that Psychology must be the Mother of Physics, because he had to use
psychological terms to describe the motion of particles. More recently, I
have the same sort of discussions with Stephen Guerin who wants to use
telic language concerning the path of photons and least action.  (I hope I
have this right, Stephen).  You all have been tempted to think I am just
trolling, but I don't think  I am.  I think there may be  places where such
descriptions are appropriate.  I do think, for instance, that the relation
between the first derivative of a function and any point in that function
is analogous to the relation between the motivation of a behavior and the
behavior  itself.

i am back to weather again, after a vacation from it for my obsession with
unsuccessful vegetable gardening.   Here is a quote from an Atmospheric
Dynamics text which is laying out the Coriolis Force.

*What happens if we consider the hockey puck moving equator-ward relative
to  the rotation of the Earth. In the absence of applied forces it must
conserve angular momentum.  Upon being pulled equator-ward in the northern
hemisphere the radius of rotation of the puck begins to
increase.Consequently, an anti-rotational relative motion develops in order
to conserve angular momentum, [Italics by NST]  *

In the view of folks on this list, is this an appropriate use of telic
language, and why or why not? Stephen has a defensible argument in favor of
it's appropriateness, the only such argument I have ever heard.  ( I don[t
buy the premises, but the argument is sound)  I am wondering about the rest
of you.

Nick
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