Ben Tilly.

Post #226,233 by mmoffitt 9/23/05 8:04:42 PM Reply	Ben Tilly. Ben, It's been a very bad week. Sorry. I know what you were saying and I know that Math rags don't contain, nor do many mathematicians write, anything like Whitehead and Russell's proof. Hell, in my algebraic topology class we rarely even finished outlines. We'd go until the prof said, "Does everyone see it? Good." I know the difference and I was being a pain in the ass and got personal. Bad form on my part. BTW, ever read A History of Mathematics? I purchased it again (read it 20 years ago) and my mathematics is severely rusty, but that book is an entertaining, non-technical read. At the moment, I forget who wrote it, but its as good as Ivars Petersen's Islands of Truth imo. My favorite quote from that book is when Petersen says that most mathematicians believe that "computation is merely an excuse for not thinking harder." Be well. bcnu, Mikem It would seem, therefore, that the three human impulses embodied in religion are fear, conceit, and hatred. The purpose of religion, one might say, is to give an air of respectibility to these passions. -- Bertrand Russell
Post #226,238 by ben_tilly 9/23/05 8:46:13 PM Reply	Thank you, and I've seen the book [link\|http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0471543977/102-6743526-2968958?v=glance\|http://www.amazon.co...-2968958?v=glance] looks like the book you're talking about, and looks familiar. But when I read the first couple of pages, I don't think that I've read it. I certainly have read some others though. [link\|http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/067440341X/qid=1127522589/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-6743526-2968958?v=glance&s=books&n=507846\|http://www.amazon.co...&s=books&n=507846] was the most recent book that I read on the history of mathematics. Only recommended if you know a fair amount about statistics. I found a bunch of interesting stuff in it, but it was clear that on some topics I didn't know quite as much about statistics as was expected. (For instance I do not know the standard proof of the central limit theorem.) Cheers, Ben I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
Post #226,528 by mmoffitt 9/26/05 12:03:45 PM Reply	Yep, that's it. I would be completely lost in any serious statistics discussion. I had a couple of stats courses, but couldn't wait to get back to courses where we had the opportunity to redefine "<". ;0) bcnu, Mikem It would seem, therefore, that the three human impulses embodied in religion are fear, conceit, and hatred. The purpose of religion, one might say, is to give an air of respectibility to these passions. -- Bertrand Russell

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