Re: (advice needed!)

Posted by Nick Thompson on Mar 23, 2010; 3:07am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/advice-needed-tp4777984p4782130.html

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 ([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 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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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