Sigh, My Math Brain

My mathematics past a basic level of calculus has always never been great. It's a huge bane of my abilities, because I think it terribly limits what I can do. For instance, I LOVE the idea of physics and mathematics (somewhat philosophically), but I cannot dabble in it because I not only do not have the tools, but I seem to lack the inclinations to be able to pick those tools up.

I'm working on some research for a business professor now pertaining to market entry and cannibalization, and my job scope involves summarizing reports. While I'm doing great with the discussion and main takeaways of the papers I've read, whenever I glance past the methods and data sections and see stuff like this, I totally blank out. Nothing registers. It's almost as if I do not possess the mental capacity at all to process whatever it is that is there in my visual field.

Of course that's an exaggeration and if I bothered to labour through the text I'm sure I can figure something out. But the moment something like this slams itself into my view, all I see immediately is gibberish, akin to looking at a totally unfamiliar language.

Perhaps it's mathematical phobia, or maybe I'm just lazy. But either way, here's my personal cap on achievable greatness!

Infinity Divinity

I'm done with Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies and have moved on to The Infinite by A. W. Moore, and am making good progress. I've always been fascinated with mathematical philosophy because there is something deeply magical and spiritual within this realm of thought that has been modernly stereotyped to be boring, mechanical, technical and anything but artful.

Maybe (the upcoming parallel is a huge generalisation) as we move along into a world marked by individual needs above community spirit and a generic shift from 'macro' level things to 'micro' level things, we may not even have exhausted mathematics and science on a more philosophical scale - dismissing it as religious gibberish and leaving it aside as an unglamourous pursuit for aimless philosophers and cranky priests by the economic, materialistic masses - and are now more interested in finding out how to measure things more accurately and extending 'the next decimal place'. There is something fundamentally very calculative about this obsession with precision, but until the next Aristotle, Albert Einstein or Immanuel Kant, the world will continue fussing over instantly gratifying specifics instead of the inconvenient truth.

It is interesting to see how the first theological thoughts and references came from great thinkers, such as Anaximander, Plotinus, Pythagoras and Aristotle, just to name a few, from a largely Greek era when the concept of infinitude was initially broached, and how relevant its divinity still carries over to this day from age-old paradoxes and sheer awe at something we cannot grasp simply because we are finite beings.

Faith is but our only bridge.




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