Recommended— An essay (part 1 of 5 parts) in today's New York TImes—
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I don’t want to die in |
"I agree with one of the earlier commenters that this is a piece of fine literary work. And in response to some of those who have wondered 'WHAT IS THE POINT?!' of this essay, I would like to say: Must literature always answer that question for us (and as quickly and efficiently as possible)?"
For an excellent survey of the essay's historical context, see The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy article
"The Incommensurability of Scientific Theories,"
First published Wed., Feb. 25, 2009,
by Eric Oberheim and Paul Hoyningen-Huene.
Related material from this journal—
Paradigms, Paradigms Lost, and a search for "mere geometry." This last includes remarks contrasting Euclid's definition of a point ("that which has no parts") with a later notion useful in finite geometry.
See also (in the spirit of The Abacus Conundrum )…
(Note the Borges epigraph above.)