Is Mathematics the King of Subjects?

Sometimes I think the greatest perceiver of the world has an inordinate percentage of numbers in his or her thought patterns, or 100% of numbers in his or her thought patterns, but frequently I find letters and their words as the base for finding new, incontrovertible formulas.

Would the world be better off with more or less mathematical thinking? I side for the former with a God-guided world.

Originally posted by Mystery_Lady

Originally posted by whaaa

By your own logic Mystery__Lady, it seems to me that math wouldn't even exist without the spoken language and the conceptualization that accompanies it.

I'm glad to see however that these types of discussions take place, other wise we would just play bounce out all day.

But the Queen always had major influence over the King, if not actually ruling through the King. We even saw this in the not so distant past. Now who was actually president Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton? Bill was, but Hillary was the one practically giving the orders.

What do you mean by language? Mathematics is basically a language. It just requires everything to be well-define, which basically means everything is consistent, or given the same assumptions you can't come to opposite conclusions.

Did the first human being think of a number, letter, or word first? I am not sure. What about all other human beings?

Do numbers make any sense without words? I believe they do. Do visions make any sense without numbers, letters, or words? I believe they do.

I believe that humans are somewhat divided between being mathematicians or linguists.

It works both ways by taking mythological/theological ideas to abstract mathmatical thoughts, to start through astrology, astronomy, then barber trade became like more capital through out most parts of the world, and mathmatics took on a greater importance. Especially after the raise of Greece and Rome.

This gradually allowed math to become more important than ever in business. Which is why it's taught somehow very badly through out public schools. If they teach it wrong to the masses, then how can the masses top the "top" mathmatically? Or at those obsessed with keeping their place. But it GOES BOTH WAYS. Which is my point.

Originally posted by 1899wascool]
This gradually allowed math to become more important than ever in business. Which is why it's taught somehow very badly through out public schools. If they teach it wrong to the masses, then how can the masses top the "top" mathmatically? Or at those obsessed with keeping their place. But it GOES BOTH WAYS. Which is my point.

I think you are onto something. I had a math teacher, who posted the slogan "the lottery a tax on people who can't do math". Banks, financial institutions, and casinos analyze the numbers so that things are in their favor, while the masses are fooled by false intuition, hype, magic thinking, and guesswork.

Most of the mathematics that relates to business is actually relatively simple. Arithmetic covers the basics. Calculus and some probability covers most other business stuff.

The groundbreaking mathematics is to large extent of no practical consequnce, at least initially. This is further augmented by the strictures of academia and zealous institutionalization of hyper-speialization, whereby mathematicians can be driven into an abyss, where they are completely disconnected from all reasonable connection with applicability or broader integration into grader unified frameworks.

Too, at times, the less mathematically can blindly turn to so-called 'mathematical' theories, without fully understanding their assumptions. Theorems are logically proved from well-defined assumptions, called axioms. When one attempts to apply mathematics to a problem of practical importance, one must be extremely careful that they apply mathematical theories, whose assumptions are true. When this cannot be done, it becomes increasingly important to empirically test all derived conclusions.

Poorly understood (pseudo)mathematical works can mask poorly-supported theories. In such cases complicated mathematically valid arguments can serve to mask otherwise baseless assumptions. Such work, common within academic economics, can serve as effective prooganda for semi-mathemaitcally literate people.

crontab, is combinatorics more like calculus or arithmetic? Is statistics more like calculus or arithmetic?

I agree that math is the king of subjects and lets also remember, the muffin is the prince of foods!


~Zappa