Quoted in the March 13 post Blackboard Jungle:
"Every morning you take your machete into the jungle
and explore and make observations, and every day
you fall more in love with the richness and splendor
of the place."
— Paul Lockhart, A Mathematician's Lament
More from Lockhart's jungle—
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Mathematical objects, even if initially inspired by some aspect of reality (e.g., piles of rocks, the disc of the moon), are still nothing more than figments of our imagination. Not only that, but they are created by us and are endowed by us with certain characteristics; that is, they are what we ask them to be…. … in Mathematical Reality, because it is an imaginary place, I actually can have pretty much whatever I want…. The point is that there is no reality to any of this, so there are no rules or restrictions other than the ones we care to impose…. Make up anything you want, so long as it isn’t boring. Of course this is a matter of taste, and tastes change and evolve. Welcome to art history! — Lockhart, Paul (2009-04-01). A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form (pp. 100-104). Bellevue Literary Press. Kindle Edition. |
Related material in this journal: Bellevue and Wechsler.
See also Gombrich in this journal and in the following:
Related material (Click for some background.) —
