Today we learned about the debate at Sparta about whether they should start the Peleponnesian War or not. We also got back our quizzes - I'm happy to report I received 5 out of 5. It was a simple enough quiz. So now my total mark is 5.7 out of 6. Or 5.7 out of 100, depending how you look at it.
In History of Science we learned about Pythagoras, whom my teacher thought a bit odd for his mystical, numerological ideas. I've heard, though, that when surveyed recently, mathematicians reported higher levels of religiosity than other scientists. And I seem to remember Patrick at Orthonormal Basis posting about the achievements of a mystical Russian school of mathematicians. Some things remain the same.
Pythagoras' other great accomplishment was his discovery of The Great Fire, and the Counter-Earth, which has made him a hero of science fiction and comic book writers ever since.
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3 comments:
Students are usually pretty amazed when I comment on the Pythagoreans, which is at pretty much any occasion I can. They made life interesting. It's especially amusing to contrast them to the Eleatics, with Zeno's paradoxes in particular as a competing worldview. Did you professor mention what the Pythagoreans did to their member who discovered that the square root of 2 is irrational?
I've also read about the higher levels of religiosity among mathematicians. In fact, most mathematicians I know have some sort of faith (though orthodox Christians are rare) or are at least quite happy to use God in their writing. A recent passage in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society read (not verbatim), "Physicists may describe what God has wrought, but mathematicians feel what it is to be God." :-) :-) :-)
I've not heard of this "mystical Russian School of mathematicians". Do you have that link handy?
No, what did they do to him?
Here's Patrick's post:
http://patrick-is-here.blogspot.com/2006/04/mystic-martyr-mathematician-recently.html
They drowned him.
Thanks for the link! I'll have to visit that weblog more often. (Catholic, mathematician, ...)
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