[lbo-talk] The need for Mathematics

ravi gadfly at exitleft.org
Sun Sep 17 16:20:59 PDT 2006


An off-list message from Jerry Monaco made me think of a recent post from a list member advising all to learn some mathematics. His recommendation was, IIRC, Calculus. I think the suggestion is a good one, but I would rather recommend two bits: a fairly introductory course in trigonometry or geometry, and something in formal logic and computability theory. The latter does not have to be technical (though I would suggest its worthwhile to plod through just first-order logic). I recommend this for two reasons: these exercises force one to think/reason atomically and at the same time, they help demonstrate the limitations of proof and certainty (which I think will have a remedial effect on misplaced confidence).

My opinion, FWIW/YMMV. (Joanna: FWIW = For whatever it's worth, YMMV = your mileage may vary).

--ravi

-- Support something better than yourself: ;-) PeTA: http://www.peta.org/ GreenPeace: http://www.greenpeace.org/ If you have nothing better to do: http://platosbeard.org/



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list