af·fine (-fn)
adj. Mathematics
1.Of or relating to a transformation of coordinates that is equivalent to a linear transformation followed by a translation.
2.Of or relating to the geometry of affine transformations.
[French affin, closely related, from Old French. See affined.]
http://www.geom.umn.edu/docs/reference/CRC-formulas/node15.html
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
affine \Af*fine"\, v. t. [F. affiner to refine; ? (L. ad) + fin fine. See Fine.] To refine. [Obs.] --Holland.
I think he really means "self-affinity" (although the mathematical definition does suggest the relationship between very SIMILAR forms). So "self-affine" would translate into mental masturbation, in my book. The very prose in which the terminology is used a good example of it.
Peter Kosenko
---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: LeoCasey at aol.com Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2001 10:08:55 EDT
>Why is tautology metaphorized as a circle? Self-reference as the
>'gravitational architectonic' of logical 'space', perhaps? Finite and
>unbounding? It would seem post-identity logics are struggling with
>self-affine and self-similar dynamics and a suitable rhetoric.
>
>
>
>English translation please.
>
>Leo Casey
>United Federation of Teachers
>260 Park Avenue South
>New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
>
>Power concedes nothing without a demand.
>It never has, and it never will.
>If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
>Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who
>want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and
>lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
>-- Frederick Douglass --
>
>
>
>
>
>