[lbo-talk] The Ontology of Two Chairs (was Reich on sex & religion)

[Jon Johanning]

On Dec 31, 2004, at 12:44 PM, joanna bujes wrote:

> 2+2 = 4 if you count as far as four. In some cultures, everything on 
> the other side of three is infinity.

If so, they have a knowledge of mathematics that won't get them very 
far, though it may be enough for their life-styles. It's sort of like a 
small society living in a valley which to them is the whole world, 
since they've never been out of it. They think it's the whole world, 
but they're wrong.

You are talking about a culture's *knowledge* of mathematics, not 
mathematics itself. This is a common problem with sociologists, etc. -- 
confusing what people know or believe about a subject with the subject 
itself.

Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org
__________________________
The very existence of the state demands that there be some privileged 
class vitally interested in maintaining that existence. And it is 
precisely the group interests of that class that are called patriotism. 
-- Mikhail Bakunin, Letters on Patriotism, 1869