Re: Misunderstanding Bateson

From: Albert Wagner (albertwagner_at_cox.net)
Date: 03/25/05 

Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2005 10:46:19 -0600

Randy Poe wrote:
> Albert Wagner wrote:
>
>>stephen@nomail.com wrote:
>>
>>>In sci.math Daryl McCullough <stevendaryl3016@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>>: Lester Zick says...
>>>
>>>:>Ah, but you see, Daryl, the point of my example was that bicyles
>
> can't
>
>>>:>be three wheeled
>>>
>>>: But you can *call* a 3-wheeled vehicle a "bicycle", if you want
>
> to.
>
>>>Not only can you call a 3-wheeled vehicle a "bicycle", people
>>>actually do call 3-wheeled vehicles "bicycles".
>>
>>Most likely, mathematicians, who have a penchant for calling
>>things by common names, but with uncommon meanings.
>
>
> Do you think there are common words available for, oh,
> algebraic numbers, continued fractions, or symmetry
> groups? Mathematics deals with uncommon objects. They
> need names. The common language is the only one we have.

Not, true. You're either (a) just too lazy to invent new words
for your uncommon meanings or (b) you are attempting to be
deceptive. My guess is that it's a combination of the two.

> (Still, it often strikes me oddly when the *same*
> common word is used in different languages. For instance,
> with electromagnetic fields I never even thought about
> the meaning of "fields" has areas full of grass or flowers.

Of course, you wouldn't. Having already isolated itself from
reality concerning logic, it is not surprising that you would
also eventually isolate youself from natural language altogether.
  You obviously learned math before you had any real
understanding of poetry.

> But it's "champs" in French too. For some reason, I
> don't expect literal translation of stuff like that.
> Although there's no reason why not.)

Yes, fundamentalism is fundamentalism, whether it be Christian,
Muslim, or Mathematics. All insist on literal translations and
abhor the poetic and the metaphorical. 

-- 
"I know that most men, including those at ease with
problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom
accept even the simplest and most obvious truth
if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity
of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining
to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others,
and which they have woven, thread by thread,
into the fabric of their lives." -
	-- Tolstoy

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