Re: JSH Theory: A *Much* Shorter Explaination

T.H. Ray wrote:
Frank J. Lhota wrote:


I think I have a much simpler version of James

Harris's recent work. If we

define

a_1 = 5 * sqrt(7)

and

a_2 = sqrt(7)

then

7 * 5 = a_1 * a_2

where all of these numbers are in the ring of

algebraic integers. It would

seem that 7 should divide either a_1 or a_2, but

NEITHER of the a's can have

7 as a factor in the ring of algebraic integers!

Don't you find that odd?

Don't worry, I didn't find it odd either. It seems

as though Mr. Harris is

the only one in these newsgroups that is unaware,

or unwilling to accept,

that the ring of algebraic integers do not always

behave the same way as the

ring of integers.

James is not interested in such simple stuff, because
then it becomes
obvious that what he says is nonsense. He reminds me
of what Bertrand
Russell said about Kant (I'm quoting from
Littlewood's Miscellany):

[Russell] said that what Kant did, trying to
g to answer to Hume [...],
was to invent more and more complicated stuff,
uff, till he could no
longer see through it and could believe it to be
o be an answer.

Best regards,

Jose Carlos Santos



Russell was, of course, the one who showed, by reducing
it to a formally logical problem, that Hume's skeptical
problem was a true problem of logic (rather than simple
sophism), which could then be taken seriously by logicians
like Godel, and dealt with formally.

As I see it, the trouble with the intellectually lazy
is that they never -- unlike Russell, Kant and Godel --
want to risk truth in the crucible of reason. They
simply want to believe as they believe. Harris really isn't all that much different from the rest of
the world, just more vocal, at least in the limited world
of Usenet.

I agree. People much prefer belief to reason. What continues to puzzle and amaze me is their ability to believe things that are contrary to their reason. For example: A bus goes over a cliff, half the passengers are killed. A survivor says "It's a miracle that I survived. God was watching over me."
.

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