> In 2015 he became the first person of color to lead the MAA.
I didn't realize chinese was a person of color.
To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
51–60 of 243 posts
Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
Give anyone (not just inmates) a computer and they are much more likely to become good Candy Crush players, Facebook users, and Buzzfeed readers than good programmers.
Sure, just like give anyone access to a library and they are much more likely to read magazines and romance novels than 19th century French literature. That's missing the point though. The point is access and opportunity. Even if only 5% become programmers, it's a net win overall (and that's not even counting the people who might play Candy Crush but still use the computer to better themselves in other ways - learnin…
Sure I agree, but remember, parent was wondering "if inmates have access to computers, would they become good programmers?"
Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
#53Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
#54Based on all the supposed benefits of doing math, it sounds like people would be better off studying philosophy. Same benefits but a much broader appeal, and far more applicable to most people's everyday lives. When I finally "discovered" philosophy in college, I was angry that we hadn't been exposed to it at all in middle or high school. Instead, I'd been forced to waste years on things like math, biology, etc. that…
Real philosophy can't be limited to some set of tools or into some set of books and approaches that fits into curriculum. Philosophy is completely open ended pursuit.
I firmly believe that philosophy without mathematically oriented thinking at the core is limiting. Teaching and studying of formal logic has been traditionally part of philosophy. In practice there is no real border between philosophy and formal sciences (logic, mathematics, statistics and theoretical computer science).
Consider the problem Kant faced in Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, §13. Two objects that are intrinsically alike must be interchangeable. But there are objects that are intrinsically alike and you can't exchange them. Kant was incredible philosopher but he was thrown off by looking at his hands. Left hand and right hand seem to be intrinsically same, but you can't replace one with another. Kant concluded that things like chirality and mirror images could not be understood with intellect and reasoning using concepts. Time and space were part of sense intuition. Mathematics would disagree. Spatial intuition is not fundamental building block for reasoning about time and space. Algebra, geometry and topology are.
Many modern day problems facing humanity can be understood only as systems thinking using, probability, mechanism design, games, incentives, equilibrium, trade-off, hysteresis, etc. But many schools of philosopy still try to use tools and concepts that can't describe the system.
edit: Several important contemporary philosophers and schools of philosophy are not are in fact limiting themselves. Saul Kripke for example.
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I think philosophy should be part of curriculum in school. But it should be live philosophy centered in problem solving and rational thought. The traditional history oriented curriculum should be part of history. History of science, technology, philosophy, economics and ideas in general is more important than the narrative trough kings and power cliques.
Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
#55I wonder if inmates have access to computers, would they become good programmers?
As a former inmate who found solace in studying math, yes. I wish I had done the same with computer science.
Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
#56Interesting. Anyone have a recommendation on a Math app for everyday use?
I'm sure an app would defeat the purpose...
Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
#57Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sure, just like give anyone access to a library and they are much more likely to read magazines and romance novels than 19th century French literature. That's missing the point though. The point is access and opportunity. Even if only 5% become programmers, it's a net win overall (and that's not even counting the people who might play Candy Crush but still use the computer to better themselves in other ways - learnin…
There's nothing wrong with his response given how the original post was worded...
[deleted]
Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
#59Based on all the supposed benefits of doing math, it sounds like people would be better off studying philosophy. Same benefits but a much broader appeal, and far more applicable to most people's everyday lives. When I finally "discovered" philosophy in college, I was angry that we hadn't been exposed to it at all in middle or high school. Instead, I'd been forced to waste years on things like math, biology, etc. that…
You could make these type of arguments over and over. How about doing multiple? Math, philosophy, music, dance, cook, workout, just do the things that you enjoy, and do meaningful things. Dance to your own damn beats whatever it is that plays in your head and tickles your fancy. last year, math it was and for about 4 months straight, I studied maths every morning, then I left it and started tooling around with the piano, then I started coding, now I'm coding and tooling with the piano again. I do have some philosophy books waiting to be read. I'm living my best life. Whilst you might have no interest in math, biology or other subjects. Some people do. I do have use for math and interest. I wish I had strong biology and chemistry background, bio engineering interests me, but I can only watch from the outside.
Re: To Live Your Best Life, Do Mathematics
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Math classes ramp up in a gradual way that develops critical thinking and intuition in a very small sandbox, where it's easier to appreciate the results. Thinking in, say, just the x-y plane makes it far easier to isolate relationships than philosophy, which tackles much bigger problems and gets you into controversial problems almost immediately, with no clear answers. The basic math framework is rigid and precise, w…
To me the key point is "no clear answers" in philosophy. In math you learn to follow a series of developments, building structure that leads to statements that are true. These are the foundation for more bricks in the wall and even bigger constructions. e.g. The proof of Fermat's last theorem. My sense of philosophy - after reading maybe a dozen of the classics, was there was little that was accepted as true. Yes, th…
Mathematics is also based on foundations which are in some sense a matter of taste e.g. Euclidean vs non-Euclidean geometries. IMO at a certain level of abstraction mathematics and philosophy are the same thing.