Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science

From: Albert (albertwagner_at_cox.net)
Date: 02/27/05 

Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 17:00:17 -0600

Wolf Kirchmeir wrote:
> Albert wrote:
>
>> Neil W Rickert wrote:
>>
>>> "Allan C Cybulskie" <allan.c.cybulskie@yahoo.ca> writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>> The main issue here, though, is what Euclid said about how geometry
>>>> should
>>>> work on curved surfaces. If he assumed flat surfaces -- as others
>>>> in this
>>>> thread have suggested -- then it isn't that his geometry is WRONG,
>>>> but that
>>>> it is INCOMPLETE.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> You seem to be assuming that the notion of "curved surface" is prior
>>> to geometry. Mathematically speaking, it is the other way around.
>>> Incidently, the surface of a cylinder is not curved (in the mathematical
>>> sense of "curved").
>>
>>
>>
>> LOL. Of course, nothing is as it is in a mathematical sense.
>> Apparently, learning mathematics is primarily memorizing a large
>> number of definitions that contradict the common definitions.
>> Mathematical concepts themselves would be easily understood but for
>> the consistently wierd definitions.
>
>
> Then it wouldn't be mathematics. I'd not rely on it at all, in that
> case, since there would be no guarantee that any two people would come
> up with the same results. A bridge built according to your notion of
> mathematics is one I wouldn't cross -- until I'd seen you cross it
> first, that is. :-)

So, it's the wierd definitions of a powerful priesthood that
fascinate you rather than the concepts. That's a shame. 

-- 
"Mercifully free of the ravages of intelligence"
	-- Time Bandits

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