Owen Densmore wrote: > OK. I now confess it: I love math, and feel its a great, very concrete > (hence mechanical) way to work out things, to understand and press > on. I have not yet found its peer. > > Many among us, apparently, feel math is somehow lacking and are > building up a fortress to defend against it. > > I am not of that persuasion. Its a tool, and a good one. > I'm with you all the way... > No one who accepts mathematics as it is, however, considers it a point > of philosophy. We do not argue about it, we try to grasp it. > until this point... I don't tend to "argue" about mathematics unless you count that chorus of loud voices inside my head, but I do think quite a bit about it, about it's limits, it's place, possible extensions and even alternatives to it. (some of) These discussions here aid me in that cogitation.
I spend more than my share of time trying to grasp various parts of mathematics for fun and/or profit, but that doesn't stop me from having philosophical thoughts about the parts (including a top-down understanding) I do grasp. > Arguing about it is for those of us who cannot understand it. > Certainly there is a human tendency to blather on, to speculate, to pontificate (otherwise blogs and mail lists would never have emerged?) about that which we do not understand, but just because we understand something doesn't prevent us from considering it's larger implications and context. Quite the opposite as these recent threads seem to indicate to me? Just my $.02 - Steve ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
