The intent of Phi Q is an attempt to channelize my wanderlust for mathematics, philosophy and everything in between. My life's path has been one of many contradictions, owing to the fact that my mind doesn't seem to stay on anything for too long, and of course the general vagaries of the outer world which never lets us put our finger on the dream until it's gone and the child is grown.
Sans les mathématiques on ne pénètre point au fond de la philosophie.
Sans la philosophie on ne pénètre point au fond des mathématiques.
Sans les deux on ne pénètre au fond de rien. — Leibniz
[Without mathematics we cannot penetrate deeply into philosophy.
Without philosophy we cannot penetrate deeply into mathematics.
Without both we cannot penetrate deeply into anything.]
Source: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~chaitin/ufrj.html
http://www.umcs.maine.edu/~chaitin/midas.html
(Both are excellent sources of Chaitin's lectures and thoughts on mathematics and philosophy.)
I'll reproduce some words from the preface of Chaitin's book (Meta-Math: The Quest for Omega) here which pretty much sums up how I wish my pursuits in these fields to take shape:
"To survive, mathematical ideas must be beautiful, they must be seductive, and they must be illuminating, they must help us to understand, they must inspire us.
...mathematics as a way of celebrating the universe, as a kind of love-making! I want you to fall in love with mathematical ideas, to begin to feel seduced by them, to see how easy it is to be entranced and to want to spend years in their company, years working on mathematical projects.
And it is a mistake to think that a mathematical idea can survive merely because it is useful, because it has practical applications. On the contrary, what is useful varies as a function of time, while 'a thing of beauty is a joy forever' (Keats). Deep theory is what is really useful, not the ephemeral usefulness of practical applications." -- Gregory Chaitin
Here are some more words of mathematical madness:
Every good mathematician is at least half a philosopher, and every good philosopher is at least half a mathematician.
-- Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (1848-1925)
"Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas."
-- Albert Einstein
A scientist worthy of his name, above all a mathematician, experiences in his work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure is as great and of the same nature.
-- Poincaré, Jules Henri (1854-1912).
(In N. Rose Mathematical Maxims and Minims, Raleigh, North Carolina: Rome Press Inc., 1988.)
Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game.
-- Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877-1947).
(A Mathematician's Apology, London, Cambridge University Press, 1941.)
Pure mathematics is the world's best game. It is more absorbing than chess, more of a gamble than poker, and lasts longer than Monopoly. It's free. It can be played anywhere—Archimedes did it in a bathtub. It is dramatic, challenging, endless, and full of surprises.
-- Richard J. Trudeau.
Sans les mathématiques on ne pénètre point au fond de la philosophie.
Sans la philosophie on ne pénètre point au fond des mathématiques.
Sans les deux on ne pénètre au fond de rien. — Leibniz
[Without mathematics we cannot penetrate deeply into philosophy.
Without philosophy we cannot penetrate deeply into mathematics.
Without both we cannot penetrate deeply into anything.]
Source: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~chaitin/ufrj.html
http://www.umcs.maine.edu/~chaitin/midas.html
(Both are excellent sources of Chaitin's lectures and thoughts on mathematics and philosophy.)
I'll reproduce some words from the preface of Chaitin's book (Meta-Math: The Quest for Omega) here which pretty much sums up how I wish my pursuits in these fields to take shape:
"To survive, mathematical ideas must be beautiful, they must be seductive, and they must be illuminating, they must help us to understand, they must inspire us.
...mathematics as a way of celebrating the universe, as a kind of love-making! I want you to fall in love with mathematical ideas, to begin to feel seduced by them, to see how easy it is to be entranced and to want to spend years in their company, years working on mathematical projects.
And it is a mistake to think that a mathematical idea can survive merely because it is useful, because it has practical applications. On the contrary, what is useful varies as a function of time, while 'a thing of beauty is a joy forever' (Keats). Deep theory is what is really useful, not the ephemeral usefulness of practical applications." -- Gregory Chaitin
Here are some more words of mathematical madness:
Every good mathematician is at least half a philosopher, and every good philosopher is at least half a mathematician.
-- Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (1848-1925)
"Pure mathematics is, in its way, the poetry of logical ideas."
-- Albert Einstein
A scientist worthy of his name, above all a mathematician, experiences in his work the same impression as an artist; his pleasure is as great and of the same nature.
-- Poincaré, Jules Henri (1854-1912).
(In N. Rose Mathematical Maxims and Minims, Raleigh, North Carolina: Rome Press Inc., 1988.)
Reductio ad absurdum, which Euclid loved so much, is one of a mathematician's finest weapons. It is a far finer gambit than any chess play: a chess player may offer the sacrifice of a pawn or even a piece, but a mathematician offers the game.
-- Hardy, Godfrey H. (1877-1947).
(A Mathematician's Apology, London, Cambridge University Press, 1941.)
Pure mathematics is the world's best game. It is more absorbing than chess, more of a gamble than poker, and lasts longer than Monopoly. It's free. It can be played anywhere—Archimedes did it in a bathtub. It is dramatic, challenging, endless, and full of surprises.
-- Richard J. Trudeau.
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