the focus in mathematics has always been the numbers, but the numbers
change, 1…1…2 can be written with plenty of different numbers…
so the real thing to study is not the numbers but the + = - -:- and all the other
connecting signs we use…for example equal =… this is a very important aspect
of mathematics… equal, this number and this number equals this number…
this commonality that numbers must have to be equal…
you must have numbers that are equal or have something in common to be able
to add, subtract, divide or multiply… you cannot add one airplane and one elephant
without creating a new class for the equal sign… =… what would equal an airplane
and a elephant? what class or things in common can you say about an airplane and a
elephant? for mathematic to work, things must be alike and/or part of a set…
like furniture…
En Tisch + Ein Stule = 2 pieces of Mobelstuck…
a table + a chair = 2 pieces of furniture…
for mathematics to work, it demands likeness, commonality, a set, similar things…
if we take mathematics as being the pole star of what we should strive for…
then for life to work, it demands likeness, commonality, a set, similar things…
we can add similar things like love and honor and hope and charity because they
all represent values… a commonality or a set…
we can strive to love and hope and charity because they are all positive values,
they are values that are similar…those values are values that lead to our better
angels… we have over 2000 years of human beings proclaiming that these values
of love and hope and charity are higher values, values that lead us to happiness…
and we move to avoid similar values of hate, anger, greed…
similar values of negative values… these values have been preached against
since humans could preach… these values are lower values that lead us to
unhappiness… you cannot add up dissimilar values… for example…
you cannot have love + hate =… because what would love and hate equal?
you must have an equality of values for this to work…
equal values are values like love, charity, hope, honesty…
you can add equal negative values like anger and hate and greed…
because they equal something… anger + hate = conservative
negative values go down to instinctive values… we instinctually have
anger and hate and greed just like animals…for they are the base values
of human existence…
but higher values like love and hope and charity are higher because
they go away from an instinctual understanding of the world…
you might I am so wrong, that I am wrong everyday of the week and twice
on Sundays… and I say, so what…
if as Nietzsche suggest that life is an experiment, then we need new
hypothesis all the time… it doesn’t even matter if I am right or wrong,
if it leads us to new understanding of the world and our place in the world…
what matters is the new understanding of the world, not the hypothesis that
got us the new understanding…
so…
Kropotkin