Glen R wrote:
>>Very interesting. If there's one conviction I'm actually guilty of,
it's believing that irony (or, more accurately, paradox) is the ultimate
teacher. And ambiguity is closely coupled with paradox.<<
Well, in that case, Byers is your book. You might even move it up the queue.
>>That page made a vague
> reference to the term "vicious circle". So, I looked up "vicious
> circle". It took me to another particular page, which made a vague
> reference to "impredicative definitions". If it hadn't been such a
> large book, it would have been funny. Instead, I learned a valuable lesson.<<
Much of my socalled career was spent trying to disentangle the vicious
circularity in the explanations that biologists and psychologists offered for
animal form and behavior. But circularity in explanations is such a satisfying
vice that few are willing to abandon it. Examples of my efforts can be found
at
http://www.clarku.edu/faculty/nthompson/1-websitestuff/Texts/1980-1984/Toward_a_falsifiable_theory_of_evolution.pdf
and
http://www.clarku.edu/faculty/nthompson/1-websitestuff/Texts/1985-1989/Comparative_psychology_and_the_recursive_structure_of_filter.pdf
Wonderful to think that you, glen, within your very own hands, have the power
to double the readership of these articles.
all the best,
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University ([email protected])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
http://www.cusf.org [City University of Santa Fe]
> [Original Message]
> From: glen e. p. ropella <[email protected]>
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <[email protected]>
> Date: 3/22/2010 6:06:58 PM
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] (advice needed!)
>
> Thus spake Nicholas Thompson circa 10-03-22 04:58 PM:
> > Yes. I am sorry. That was my fault. There was a bit of a slipup between
> > the "provost" and the professor.
>
> No worries! It looks like a great book and I expect I'll enjoy it when
> I pop it off the queue.
>
> > Byers main point is that it is AMBIGUITY that makes maths great! But its a
> > subtle argument because what he is really saying is ironic: as
> > mathematicians strive to reduce amibiguity they inevitably generate more,
> > and thus, against their feverish and futile resistance, does math progress.
>
> Very interesting. If there's one conviction I'm actually guilty of,
> it's believing that irony (or, more accurately, paradox) is the ultimate
> teacher. And ambiguity is closely coupled with paradox. (Warning: the
> broken record begins again.) That's why I'm so fond of "Vicious
> Circles" by Barwise and Moss. It's the closest body of math I've found
> that tries to explain how cycles impact the definiteness of math.
>
> But it's wrapped in other stories, too. I remember once looking up
> "impredicative definition" in the index of some overly large math
> reference book in some library somewhere. (I lose track sometimes. ;-)
> It told me to look at a particular page. That page made a vague
> reference to the term "vicious circle". So, I looked up "vicious
> circle". It took me to another particular page, which made a vague
> reference to "impredicative definitions". If it hadn't been such a
> large book, it would have been funny. Instead, I learned a valuable lesson.
>
> --
> glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com
>
>
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