Comments on "Naming Infinity" - A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity by Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor
For someone whose mathematical understanding is limited this small book is not very easy to describe. Nonetheless, the story of these late 19th and early 20th century mostly French and Russian mathematicians is quite illuminating. Although the first modern mathematician who "discovered", or "invented", the mathematical theory of sets was a German, the French soon took over its further developement and elaboration.
The authors say, however, that since the French mathematicians were limited by Rene' Descartes' rationalism and Auguste Comte's positivism, they eventually came to an "intellectual abyss."
On the other hand, there existed in Russia centuries of tradition of "mysticism", that, although sometimes condemned as heretical "Name Worshipping," did not prevent the Russian mathematicians from mixing mathematics and religion.
How do these mathematical ideas exist? Are they imagined? Or are they real? Have they always been there to be discovered? Or do they become real, or come into existence, only after they are named?
The usually religious and sometimes even "Name Worshipping" Russian mathematicians naturally came under fierce attack and persecution by the materialist Marxists who eventually came into power everywhere in Russia. Many, maybe most, were imprisoned. Some were executed, or died violently, and others "converted" and promoted the aggressive, intolerant, and totalitarian ideas of the new Soviet Union.
However, in spite of these events, the Moscow School of Mathematics grew and became world famous.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Friday, January 7, 2011
Experimental Blog #55
Comments on "The Tenth Parallel" - Dispatches from the Fault Line between Christianity and Islam by Eliza Griswold
The achievements and the many products of today's science and technology continue to flood and dazzle the entire contemporary world. But, in spite of all of this production, it continues to be glaringly obvious that science and technology do not, and can not, give any meaning and purpose to human life, either individually or to a society of any size.
However, anybody can experience, or learn about, the many thousands of works and monuments of religious creativity around the world; going back thousands of years in architecture, art, sculpture, music, literature, and other works.
The awful and horrible destructiveness of people in the name of their religions is also a part of thousands of years of human history and the news and events of today anywhere in the world.
Sooner or later, somehow or other, something like a new universal worldwide religion will develope because of its necessity. Then people will find more harmonious religious meaning and purpose to their lives, and they will create new works and monuments of all kinds for worship and other religious purposes and expressions.
The achievements and the many products of today's science and technology continue to flood and dazzle the entire contemporary world. But, in spite of all of this production, it continues to be glaringly obvious that science and technology do not, and can not, give any meaning and purpose to human life, either individually or to a society of any size.
However, anybody can experience, or learn about, the many thousands of works and monuments of religious creativity around the world; going back thousands of years in architecture, art, sculpture, music, literature, and other works.
The awful and horrible destructiveness of people in the name of their religions is also a part of thousands of years of human history and the news and events of today anywhere in the world.
Sooner or later, somehow or other, something like a new universal worldwide religion will develope because of its necessity. Then people will find more harmonious religious meaning and purpose to their lives, and they will create new works and monuments of all kinds for worship and other religious purposes and expressions.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Experimental Blog #54
Comments on "Lost and Found in Russia" - Lives in a Post-Soviet Landscape by Susan Richards
The English lady who is the author of this book seems so fluent in Russian that she never seems to miss anything. Her ability to share her long travels in the new Russia and her Russian friends and acquaintances can hardly be described. This book is Susan Richards' 2nd book of Russian travels, and is a remarkable sequel to it.
The first book, "Epics of Everyday Life," was very much praised and was very tranquil by comparison. It was written just months before the communist Soviet Union began to fall apart, and nobody seemed to be aware of this outcome, including the author.
The English lady who is the author of this book seems so fluent in Russian that she never seems to miss anything. Her ability to share her long travels in the new Russia and her Russian friends and acquaintances can hardly be described. This book is Susan Richards' 2nd book of Russian travels, and is a remarkable sequel to it.
The first book, "Epics of Everyday Life," was very much praised and was very tranquil by comparison. It was written just months before the communist Soviet Union began to fall apart, and nobody seemed to be aware of this outcome, including the author.
Monday, December 27, 2010
Experimental Blog #53
Comments on "Living History" - by Hillary Rodham Clinton
"Where the lights are brilliant the shades run deep" and "Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind" are two aphorisms, the first one of unknown origin, the second one biblical, that could apply to Hilliray Rodham Clinton.
Hillary Rodham's first political activism was as a "fearless and stupid," she says, 13 year old volunteering for a Republican Party investigation for vote fraud in the 1960 election. She knocked on doors, alone, in a poor South Side Chicago neighborhood, and in one day, or less, uncovered at least a dozen apparently fraudulent voter registrations.
However, Hillary Rodham was "obviously" born to be, not a Republican, even a liberal one, but a very partisan Democrat, which she easily became when she met William Jefferson Clinton in 1970 at about 23 years of age.
Among other things, Hillary's book succeeds in making Bill Clinton a forgivable and likable human being, a naturally very sympathetic and charming man, who was, perhaps, beguiled and seduced by almost unlimited audulation and power to the point of losing his "better judgement," at times; actually a very common occurence. "Birds of feather flock together" is another aphorism that seems very appropriate to describe Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Many of Hillary's finest moments and speeches occur when she is working and speaking for children's and women's causes. It seems safe to say that Hillary Rodham Clinton was likely the most visible, influential, and controversial American First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. She makes people think, and how can she do that without being controversial, or even offensive, at times.
However, Hillary shows her most narrow-minded and intransigent side near the end of this book when she expresses her views on the outcome of the stalled election of the year 2000. Here she seems most clearly incapable or unwilling to understand other people's different points of view.
How would she react to the opinion that Richard Nixon was, and so far remains, arguably the most significant and critical American President since Franklin Roosevelt, in spite of having acquired very early in his career the nickname "tricky Dick," and his several public "poor Richard" performances?
In the modern scientific age we may no longer be punished for our "sins," but we are all punished for our "stupidity", and it all turns out to be more or less the same in the long run.
Now, after having been a United States Senator from New York for 8 years, Hillary Rodham Clinton is our American Secretary of State. Her career continues, and she will surely write another book, or books, in the years ahead.
"Where the lights are brilliant the shades run deep" and "Sow the wind and reap the whirlwind" are two aphorisms, the first one of unknown origin, the second one biblical, that could apply to Hilliray Rodham Clinton.
Hillary Rodham's first political activism was as a "fearless and stupid," she says, 13 year old volunteering for a Republican Party investigation for vote fraud in the 1960 election. She knocked on doors, alone, in a poor South Side Chicago neighborhood, and in one day, or less, uncovered at least a dozen apparently fraudulent voter registrations.
However, Hillary Rodham was "obviously" born to be, not a Republican, even a liberal one, but a very partisan Democrat, which she easily became when she met William Jefferson Clinton in 1970 at about 23 years of age.
Among other things, Hillary's book succeeds in making Bill Clinton a forgivable and likable human being, a naturally very sympathetic and charming man, who was, perhaps, beguiled and seduced by almost unlimited audulation and power to the point of losing his "better judgement," at times; actually a very common occurence. "Birds of feather flock together" is another aphorism that seems very appropriate to describe Hillary and Bill Clinton.
Many of Hillary's finest moments and speeches occur when she is working and speaking for children's and women's causes. It seems safe to say that Hillary Rodham Clinton was likely the most visible, influential, and controversial American First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt. She makes people think, and how can she do that without being controversial, or even offensive, at times.
However, Hillary shows her most narrow-minded and intransigent side near the end of this book when she expresses her views on the outcome of the stalled election of the year 2000. Here she seems most clearly incapable or unwilling to understand other people's different points of view.
How would she react to the opinion that Richard Nixon was, and so far remains, arguably the most significant and critical American President since Franklin Roosevelt, in spite of having acquired very early in his career the nickname "tricky Dick," and his several public "poor Richard" performances?
In the modern scientific age we may no longer be punished for our "sins," but we are all punished for our "stupidity", and it all turns out to be more or less the same in the long run.
Now, after having been a United States Senator from New York for 8 years, Hillary Rodham Clinton is our American Secretary of State. Her career continues, and she will surely write another book, or books, in the years ahead.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Experimental Blog #52
Comments on "Dreaming in Chinese" - Mandarin Lessons in Life, Love, and Language by Deborah Fallows
Some books come with many recommendations, and, sometimes it seems that they need them, for some reason or other. This book has 7 recommendations, but it does not need any such authoritative defenses. The author, Deborah Fallows, is a very impressive linguistic scholar. For outsiders, her little book is a very engaging introduction to the mysteries of the spoken and written Chinese language.
Among other things, this little journey into the Chinese language and people shows what differences and similarities 5000 years of continuous history and vast, or maximum, linguistic differences have produced among the hundreds of millions of Chinese people, and many of the other people of the world as well.
If these comments were authoritative, they might be an 8th recommendation.
Some books come with many recommendations, and, sometimes it seems that they need them, for some reason or other. This book has 7 recommendations, but it does not need any such authoritative defenses. The author, Deborah Fallows, is a very impressive linguistic scholar. For outsiders, her little book is a very engaging introduction to the mysteries of the spoken and written Chinese language.
Among other things, this little journey into the Chinese language and people shows what differences and similarities 5000 years of continuous history and vast, or maximum, linguistic differences have produced among the hundreds of millions of Chinese people, and many of the other people of the world as well.
If these comments were authoritative, they might be an 8th recommendation.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Experimental Blog #51
Comments on "The Next Big Story" - My Journey Through the Land of Possibilities by Soledad O'Brien with Rose Marie Arce
Most people probably know the author of this book, Soledad O'Brien, as the well-known, always charming, news anchor and special correspondent. Not surprisingly, she has always been an exceptionally high achiever. Soledad is a graduate of Harvard University, as well as are all 5 of her high achieving sisters and brothers. Page after page of this book relate her seemingly inexhaustible energy, optimism, and successes.
Soledad O'Brien's stories about her family and hometown, and her reporting about the different news networks where she has worked, and about all kinds of people, such as Lou Dobbs, another news anchor and Harvard graduate at her workplace, are extremely interesting.
Most of all, however, she seems to concentrate on the events of Hurricaine Katrina and the massive earthquake in Haiti in January 2010.
She generally seems disappointed with and is disparaging about the efforts of the American government. However, it also seems that the nature of the American government and political solutions must derive from American sources; they can not be imported, at least for very long.
America has its own "political philosophers", such as, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt, to mention only 3. The best description, or most dependable in the longest run, of American government seems to be Abraham Lincoln's; that is, the conveniently somewhat ambiguous, "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." This description can impose limits on those people who want more American government as well as on those people who want less government.
Most people probably know the author of this book, Soledad O'Brien, as the well-known, always charming, news anchor and special correspondent. Not surprisingly, she has always been an exceptionally high achiever. Soledad is a graduate of Harvard University, as well as are all 5 of her high achieving sisters and brothers. Page after page of this book relate her seemingly inexhaustible energy, optimism, and successes.
Soledad O'Brien's stories about her family and hometown, and her reporting about the different news networks where she has worked, and about all kinds of people, such as Lou Dobbs, another news anchor and Harvard graduate at her workplace, are extremely interesting.
Most of all, however, she seems to concentrate on the events of Hurricaine Katrina and the massive earthquake in Haiti in January 2010.
She generally seems disappointed with and is disparaging about the efforts of the American government. However, it also seems that the nature of the American government and political solutions must derive from American sources; they can not be imported, at least for very long.
America has its own "political philosophers", such as, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt, to mention only 3. The best description, or most dependable in the longest run, of American government seems to be Abraham Lincoln's; that is, the conveniently somewhat ambiguous, "government of the people, by the people, and for the people." This description can impose limits on those people who want more American government as well as on those people who want less government.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Experimental Blog #50
Comments on "When a Billion Chinese Jump" - How China Will Save Mankind - Or Destroy It by Jonathan Watts
Right near the beginning of this book this British author, Jonathan Watts, declares that his book's "structure is polemical rather than geographic." The book is highly praised; there are 10 recommendations from other authors or executives of organizations of public education or opinion. However, the author's writing should not be accepted without any criticism, such as, he seems so determined in his polemic, or disputation, that he often gives the impression that he is contradicting himself, even if that may not be more strictly true. His stated "facts" are occasionally controversial, such as, he says that China has 3000 years of continuous history, the world's longest, while other authorities have usually, or often, given 4000 years, or even longer, for this figure. The author twice, first in the text and again in the end notes, seems to report, without sufficient comment, that China has converted carbon dioxide into hydrogen!
However, in spite of this frequent, or even continuous polemical overstating, this book is a very informative tour of some of China's provinces and territories and China's immense significance and problems, both for itself and for everybody else too.
Right near the beginning of this book this British author, Jonathan Watts, declares that his book's "structure is polemical rather than geographic." The book is highly praised; there are 10 recommendations from other authors or executives of organizations of public education or opinion. However, the author's writing should not be accepted without any criticism, such as, he seems so determined in his polemic, or disputation, that he often gives the impression that he is contradicting himself, even if that may not be more strictly true. His stated "facts" are occasionally controversial, such as, he says that China has 3000 years of continuous history, the world's longest, while other authorities have usually, or often, given 4000 years, or even longer, for this figure. The author twice, first in the text and again in the end notes, seems to report, without sufficient comment, that China has converted carbon dioxide into hydrogen!
However, in spite of this frequent, or even continuous polemical overstating, this book is a very informative tour of some of China's provinces and territories and China's immense significance and problems, both for itself and for everybody else too.
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