Posted by
Nick Thompson on
Mar 22, 2010; 7:30pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/advice-needed-tp4777984p4779915.html
Glen,
you wrote
" Math is a language for disambiguation".
Forgive me if I have asked you this before: Have you ever read Byers HOW
MATHEMATICIANS THINK?
If so, could you rub those two rocks together a little for me?
Thx,
N
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University (
[hidden email])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/http://www.cusf.org [City University of Santa Fe]
> [Original Message]
> From: glen e. p. ropella <
[hidden email]>
> To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
[hidden email]>
> Date: 3/22/2010 12:20:16 PM
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] (advice needed!)
>
> Thus spake Vladimyr Ivan Burachynsky circa 10-03-22 10:43 AM:
> > I opened a lid and are you the surprise in side?
> > Language issues are extremely complex and I am not sure which position
you
> > take, In fact I suspect you do not subscribe to either.
>
> I'm just an Eddington style typewriter. I read a bunch of stuff. It
> percolates around randomly. Then I spew it back out without really
> knowing anything about what I'm saying. [grin] And in the great
> tradition of psychological reflexion, I assume everyone else is the same.
>
> > I always suspected my father was slightly mad when he would begin
laughing
> > at something someone said, He explained that it sounded like something
> > obscene in Finnish or Yiddish.
>
> Exactly! Those interested in language mismatch claim that lots of
> "interestingness" seems to come from language mismatches, including lots
> of humor.
>
> > I agree with your comments but unfortunately we often have to make
choices
> > between two bad options since there is nothing better. If we recognize
the
> > language trap how do we escape?
>
> I tend to keep reminding myself that my grasp of reality is very tenuous
> regardless of my (frequent) sporadic descents into the conviction that I
> have a very good understanding of it. By continually reminding myself,
> I find that almost every time I remind myself while stuck in that
> conviction, the conviction is a direct result of being ensconced in a
> particular language. As I age, however, I'm finding my own reminders
> more and more difficult to maintain. So, I sporadically start arguments
> with people like those on this list and enlist them to help me remind
> myself. (Yes, that's totally selfish ... But you'll rarely find me
> arguing that altruism is natural. ;-)
>
> I confess, though, that these constant reminders make me a jack of many
> trades, master of none. And that can be a very bad thing. Luckily, I'm
> a simulant and my job requires that I be that way.
>
> > Creating a new language such as mathematics did not solve our
difficulties
> > if anything it helped illuminate the issues.
>
> Yes! I firmly agree with that! Math is a language for disambiguation.
>
> --
> glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095,
http://agent-based-modeling.com>
>
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