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| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 93 responses total. |
jmsaul
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response 25 of 93:
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Jun 25 02:37 UTC 2003 |
Sorta like the "virgin" thing... ;-)
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aruba
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response 26 of 93:
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Jun 25 03:47 UTC 2003 |
I assume Augustine was writing in Latin.
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dcat
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response 27 of 93:
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Jun 25 06:42 UTC 2003 |
According to several posters to the Historia Matematica mailing list [1], the
Augustine quote is from the second book of "De Genesi ad Litteram" ("The
Literal Meaning of Genesis", according to posting #92 (below)).
In [2], Barry Cipra provides the original Latin:
Quapropter bono christiano, sive mathematici, sive quilibet impie
divinantium, maxime dicentes vera, cavendi sunt, ne consortio daemoniorum
irretiant.
[1] http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec99/009
0.html
http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec99/0091.html
http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec99/0092.html
[2] http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec99/0097.html
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dcat
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response 28 of 93:
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Jun 25 06:44 UTC 2003 |
It's said that in Hell, the alcohol is packaged in Klein bottles.
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jep
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response 29 of 93:
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Jun 25 11:46 UTC 2003 |
re resp:28: Heh!
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orinoco
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response 30 of 93:
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Jun 25 14:27 UTC 2003 |
www.perseus.tufts.edu says that "mathematicus" can refer to mathematicians
or to astrologers.
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rcurl
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response 31 of 93:
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Jun 25 16:41 UTC 2003 |
We must conclude that Augustine was mathematically illiterate, if he didn't
make a clear distinction.
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flem
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response 32 of 93:
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Jun 25 17:16 UTC 2003 |
You must wear really big hats, rane.
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rcurl
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response 33 of 93:
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Jun 25 19:07 UTC 2003 |
What's that mean? Augustine was versed in philosophy, rhetoric and religion.
He studied Latin but apparently didn't much care for Greek, where he might
have encountered mathematics as we know it (Euclid, etc). He had a
rather numerological perspective on real mathematics - his "perfect" number
was, in fact, 6. When he speaks of mathematics, keep in mind his exposition
on number given at
http://sunsite.utk.edu/math_archives/.http/hypermail/historia/dec99/0145.ht
ml
which reads like the work of mathematicians he railed against.
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gelinas
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response 34 of 93:
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Jun 25 20:37 UTC 2003 |
That definition of a "perfect number" is still in use, and still being
taught.
At the time of Augustine, 'mathematics' was 'philosophy': mystical
significance was attached to just about everything.
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aruba
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response 35 of 93:
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Jun 25 23:09 UTC 2003 |
Perfect numbers were defined by the Pythagoreans, according to Eric Temple
Bell, and explored by Euclid, according to Herbert Westren Turnbull (both in
Volume I of The World of Mathematics). So Augustine either read the Greeks
or read someone who read the Greeks.
I think one should be careful not to judge a person by the standards of a
time other than his own. Augustine was living in a world that had little
use for mathematics, so we can't really blame him for finding little use for
it himself.
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rcurl
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response 36 of 93:
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Jun 26 00:48 UTC 2003 |
I think it is more likely that he had little use for mathematics for some
of the same reasons that people here have stated they have little use
for much of mathematics. His "field" was something else.
But thanks for reminding me of the mathematical definition of a "perfect
number", which does indeed predate Augustine by several centuries. Knowledge
of those must have come down by several routes, including astrology and other
forms of mysticism. What got me was the obvious impression in Augustine that
there is somehow something "perfect" about a "perfect number".
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aruba
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response 37 of 93:
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Jun 26 02:16 UTC 2003 |
Well, the Pythagoreans were big into attaching emotional significance to
numbers and mathematics in general. They were a strange lot.
There really wasn't a lot of mathematics going on in Europe between
Archimedes and the Renaissance. So Augustine, in 300 AD, really didn't
have a lot of positive mathematical role models. In general, what
scholarship there was in all fields was coupled pretty tightly to
religion.
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void
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response 38 of 93:
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Jun 26 19:54 UTC 2003 |
re #28: http://www.kleinbottle.com/drinking_mug_klein_bottle.htm
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gelinas
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response 39 of 93:
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Jun 26 20:40 UTC 2003 |
(I'm tempted to order one.)
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dcat
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response 40 of 93:
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Jun 26 21:54 UTC 2003 |
"ACME KLEIN BOTTLE - Where there's one side to every problem"
I'm also tempted, but since they're $80, not very tempted.
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void
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response 41 of 93:
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Jun 27 04:52 UTC 2003 |
I've been tempted to order either a Klein Stein or an Acme Klein
bottle for a while now. So far, I've resisted the temptation.
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gull
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response 42 of 93:
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Jun 27 13:06 UTC 2003 |
I can't see spending that kind of money on a knick-knack for myself, and
no one I normally buy gifts for is enough of a math geek to really
appreciate it.
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tpryan
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response 43 of 93:
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Jun 27 16:26 UTC 2003 |
Anybody got a good portable hole around?
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other
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response 44 of 93:
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Jun 27 16:33 UTC 2003 |
I've got a few. Of course, what they're "good" for for me wouldn't
likely make them of any use to you.
|
i
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response 45 of 93:
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Jun 28 01:24 UTC 2003 |
Re: #43
There's one right here on grex - /dev/null. Infinite capacity, zero
side effects - perfect for all your storage needs.
:)
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russ
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response 46 of 93:
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Jun 29 19:41 UTC 2003 |
A mathematician named Klein
Said "The Moebius strip is divine!
And if you glue
The edges of two
You'll get a weird bottle like mine."
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gull
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response 47 of 93:
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Jun 30 16:29 UTC 2003 |
Strom Thurmond's last words:
"They legalized sodomy? Over my dead body!"
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sholmes
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response 48 of 93:
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Jul 2 15:01 UTC 2003 |
This one takes the cake ..
http://www.chaser.com.au/show_story.asp?ID=638&ED=68&CAT=6
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other
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response 49 of 93:
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Jul 2 17:36 UTC 2003 |
... But not the frosting, apparently.
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