Author Archives: Jon Awbrey

Meno Meno Tekel Upharsin

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Re: Theodora Goss Can we ever become what we weren’t in eternity? Can we ever learn what we weren’t born knowing? Can we ever share what we never had in common? Lately I’ve begun to see that these ancient riddles … Continue reading →

Posted in Anamnesis, Change, Communication, Education, Eternity, Innate Ideas, Learning, Meno, Tabula Rasa, Teaching, Time, Universal Harmony | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Present Is Big With The Future

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Now that I have proved sufficiently that everything comes to pass according to determinate reasons, there cannot be any more difficulty over these principles of God’s foreknowledge.  Although these determinations do not compel, they cannot but be certain, and they … Continue reading →

Posted in Causality, Certainty, Chance, Contingency, Determination, Determinism, Differential Calculus, Differential Logic, Evil, Free Will, Freedom, Hologrammautomaton, Infinitesimals, Leibniz, Preëstablished Harmony, Theodicy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

Pragmatism Meets Absurdity

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

At the streetcorner … At any streetcorner the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face. As it is, in its distressing nudity, in its light without effulgence, it is elusive. But that very difficulty deserves reflection. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdity, Albert Camus, Existentialism, Peirce, Pragmatic Maxim, Pragmatism, Sisyphus | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Determined Soul

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Selections from Albert Camus, “The Myth of Sisyphus” Everything considered, a determined soul will always manage. (41) ⁂   To a man devoid of blinders, there is no finer sight than that of the intelligence at grips with a reality … Continue reading →

Posted in Albert Camus, Sisyphus | Tagged , | Leave a comment

τὰ δὲ μοι παθήματα ἐόντα ἀχάριτα μαθήματα γέγονε

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Croesus, addressing Cyrus, says — τὰ δὲ μοι παθήματα ἐόντα ἀχάριτα μαθήματα γέγονε. My sufferings, though painful, have been my lessons. — Herodotus • 1.207 Notes • (1) • (2) • (3) • (4) • (5)

Posted in Anthem | Tagged | 2 Comments

A Meno Acid

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

What answers to the Meno Paradox Comes in the moment of realizing — Gathering together the building blocks Is just the beginning of the building.

Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Science, Education, Inquiry, Learning, Meno, Philosophy, Plato, Teaching, Verse | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Indicator Functions • 1

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Re: R.J. Lipton and K.W. Regan • Who Invented Boolean Functions? One of the things it helps to understand about 19th Century mathematicians, and those who built the bridge to the 20th, is that they were capable of high abstraction … Continue reading →

Posted in Abstraction, Boole, Boolean Functions, C.S. Peirce, Category Theory, Characteristic Functions, Euler, Indicator Functions, John Venn, Logic, Mathematics, Peirce, Propositional Calculus, Set Theory, Venn Diagrams, Visualization | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Riffs and Rotes • 2

Posted on March 3, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Re: Peter Cameron • Addition and Multiplication of Natural Numbers The interaction between addition and multiplication in the natural numbers has long been an interest of mine, leading to broader questions about the relationship between algebra and combinatorics.  My gropings … Continue reading →

Posted in Arithmetic, Combinatorics, Graph Theory, Group Theory, Logic, Mathematics, Number Theory, Riffs and Rotes | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Oracles

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Computing, in its way, and science, in its broader way, both involve the relation between what appears limited and what appears not. Whether you believe in divinity or not, and whether you believe that humanity contains a spark of divinity … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Computability, Computing, Inquiry, Oracles, Relative Computability, Science, Universals | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Quotiens?

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

How many times do I repeat the same experience? Before I come to see it as the same experience?

Posted in Algorithms, Anamnesis, Arithmetic, Deja Vu, Education, Epistemology, Eternal Return, Inquiry, Learning, Meno, Music, Pattern Recognition, Plato, Poetry, Recursion, Repetition, Rhythm, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments