Category Archives: Mathematics

Finding a Needle in a Cactus Patch

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Re: R.J. Lipton • Sex, Lies, And Quantum Computers Don’t know much about quantum computation, but my ventures in graphical syntaxes for propositional calculus did turn up a logical operator whose evaluation process reminded me a little of the themes … Continue reading →

Posted in Boolean Functions, C.S. Peirce, Cactus Graphs, Computational Complexity, Graph Theory, Logic, Logical Graphs, Minimal Negation Operators, Painted Cacti, Peirce, Propositional Calculus, Quantum Computing, Semiotics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

What It Is

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Re: Gil Kalai If I remember my long ago readings well enough, Jimmy the Ancient Greek could lay odds as well as any modern bookmaker on the outcomes of Olympic contests, but that was not really the point of Zeno’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Change, Heraclitus, Infinity, Logic, Mathematics, Motion, Paradox, Parmenides, Phenomenology, Zeno | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Slip Slidin’ Away

Posted on April 11, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

And you give me the choice between a description that is sure but that teaches me nothing and hypotheses that claim to teach me but that are not sure. — Albert Camus • The Myth of Sisyphus Re: R.J. Lipton … Continue reading →

Posted in Albert Camus, C.S. Peirce, Change, Differential Logic, Infinity, Lewis Carroll, Logic, Mathematics, Meno, Modus Ponens, Motion, Paradox, Phenomenology, Sisyphus, Syllogism, Time, Zeno | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

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

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

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

I Wonder, Wonder Who

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Re: R.J. Lipton and K.W. Regan • Who Invented Boolean Functions? The question recalls recent discussions of discovery and invention in the mathematical field, bringing back to mind questions I’ve wondered about for as long as I can remember. Speaking … Continue reading →

Posted in Anamnesis, Aristotle, Boole, Boolean Functions, C.S. Peirce, Discovery, Invention, Learning, Logic, Mathematics, Meno, Model Theory, Peirce, Plato, Propositional Calculus, Recollection, Semiotics, Socrates, Teaching | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Notes On Categories • 1

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

Continued from “Notes On Categories” (14 Jul 2003) • Inquiry List • Ontology List NB.  This page is a work in progress.  I will have to dig up some still older notes from the days of pen and paper before … Continue reading →

Posted in Abstraction, Category Theory, Computing, Graph Theory, Logic, Mathematics, Relation Theory, Type Theory | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Château Descartes

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Jon Awbrey

But if we are to select those dimensions which will be of the greatest assistance to our imagination, we should never attend to more than one or two of them as depicted in our imagination, even though we are well … Continue reading →

Posted in Analytic Geometry, Cartesian Coordinate System, Cartesian Philosophy, Cartesian Product, Descartes, Dualism, Dyadicism, Inquiry, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, Reductionism, Relation Theory | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments