Re: [Edu-sig] Programming for Fun Quote
Mathematics hasn't provided a theoretically infinite level of abstraction since 1934, when Godel gave his lectures on uncertainty. It seems strange to me to separate mathematics and language (math seems to have syntax and grammar), but maybe I've been doing too much geometry and logic, and reading too much Hofstadter.
"Lloyd Hugh Allen" <vze2f978@verizon.net> wrote Re: [Edu-sig] Programming for Fun Quote
Mathematics hasn't provided a theoretically infinite level of abstraction since 1934, when Godel gave his lectures on uncertainty.
It seems strange to me to separate mathematics and language (math seems to have syntax and grammar), but maybe I've been doing too much geometry and logic, and reading too much Hofstadter.
Yes Indeed. And reading too much Hofstadter will do that to you ;-) The orginal writer's view was that for teaching purposes in shools, programming is perhaps better approached from linguistic perspective first, than to be treated as Mathematics. I agree it is not Mathematics _or_ Language. Mathematics is a [human] language, and a subset if you will of Language. It more than that too.. but not less. An lovely example of this in action is the beuatiful and original calculus treatise: Who Is Fourier? : A Mathematical Adventure by Alan Gleason (Translator), Yo Sakakibara (Introduction), Transnational College of LEX Paperback (May 1995) Blackwell Science Inc; ISBN: 0964350408 $24.95 http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN%3D0964350408/themathematiassoA/107-20 37412-5694951 cheers - Jason
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Lloyd Hugh Allen