09 AUG 2014 by ideonexus
König’s paradox: Ordinals
Let’s start by turning back the clock. It is India in the fifth century BCE, the age of the historical Buddha, and a rather peculiar principle of reasoning appears to be in general use. This principle is called the catuskoti, meaning ‘four corners’. It insists that there are four possibilities regarding any statement: it might be true (and true only), false (and false only), both true and false, or neither true nor false.
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To get back to something that the Buddha might recognise,...Folksonomies: mathematics paradox
Folksonomies: mathematics paradox
1 
notes
notesAlso Betrand Russel's "Set of All Sets that Do Not Contain Themselves"
30 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Our Collective Memory
Taken globally, the set of traces that we leave in the world does without doubt add up to something. It is through operations on sets of traces that I understand an event that I take part in. Tolstoy wrote about the foot soldier in the Napoleonic wars. The soldier he describes cannot have the experience of the war he is waging nor the battle he is fighting because the only “global” traces of the war are inscriptions—notably, maps and statistics. There is no scalable observation that mov... 1 notes
notesNo one soldier experiences a War. They experience details from their microcosm encounter with the war. The war itself is a collective memory experienced only in history books.
11 JUN 2013 by ideonexus
Solution to Russel's Paradox
An analysis of the paradoxes to be avoided shows that they all result from a kind of vicious circle. The vicious circles in question arise from supposing that a collection of objects may contain members which can only be defined by means of the collection as a whole. Thus, for example, the collection of propositions will be supposed to contain a proposition stating that “all propositions are either true or false.” It would seem, however, that such a statement could not be legitimate unles...The paradox that a set of sets that do not contain themselves must contain itself.
11 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
The Dinosaur: A Poem
Behold the mighty dinosaur,
Famous in prehistoric lore,
Not only for his power and strength
But for his intellectual length.
You will observe by these remains
The creature had two sets of brains—
One in his head (the usual place),
The other at his spinal base.
Thus he could reason 'A priori'
As well as 'A posteriori'.
No problem bothered him a bit
He made both head and tail of it.
So wise was he, so wise and solemn,
Each thought filled just a spinal column.
If one brain found the pressure s...About how dinosaurs have two brains, one in the rear (don't know if this is true or not, but I remember hearing this).
14 DEC 2011 by ideonexus
The False Dichotomy of Mind and Body
The arguments for the two substances [mind and body] have, we believe, entirely lost their validity; they are no longer compatible with ascertained science and clear thinking. The one substance, with two sets of properties, two sides, the physical and the mental—a double-faced unity—would appear to comply with all the exigencies of the case. 1 notes
notesIt is silly to have two substances, where there is actually one substance with two properties.
20 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Poem: Behold the Mighty Dinosaur
Behold the mighty dinosaur,
Famous in prehistoric lore,
Not only for his power and strength
But for his intellectual length.
You will observe by these remains
The creature had two sets of brains -
One in his head (the usual place),
The other at his spinal base,
Thus he could reason A priori
As well as A posteriori.
No problem bothered him a bit
He made both head and tail of it.
So wise was he, so wise and solemn,
Each thought filled just a spinal column.
If one brain found the pressure strong...1 
notes
notesBy Bert Leston Taylor (1866-1921).
