Engels poked fun of the >notion of imaginary numbers, that is numbers >that were derived from the square root of >-1. But both imaginary numbers and complex >numbers were already, in Engels's time, a quite >respectable part of mathematics. And physicists >and engineers were already using them in >analyzing such things as wave phenomena, for >instance. While Engels generally had a good >grasp of the science of his day, he was behind >the times in his understanding of mathematics >(he was also deficient in his understanding of >the latest work on the foundations of the >calculus) and that led him to making a few >whoppers in his writings.
^^^^ CB: It's still not clear to me that saying that imaginary numbers involves a dialectical contradiction is a "whopper". Most of the mathematicians who made the later advances were "deficient" in dialectical logic or used unconsciously. I'll forward the thread where we discussed this before. CB This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
