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Contrary to John Womack's posting, it is unclear that "equilibrium" is in
any important sense a metaphor borrowed from physical sciences. The
earliest citation in Oxford English Dictionary of "equilibrium" in a
physical sense is from Boyle in 1660. It reports citations using it in
mental, psychological, and moral senses that are nearly contemporaneous
(1675) in one case and substantially earlier (1608) in another. Dictionary
entries don't decide such a matter, but they provide a clue. I suspect
that, in this case, as in many others ("circulation" being another example)
our excessive awe of modern sciences leads us to conjectures that would not
stand up to close scrutiny.
Kevin Hoover
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