Welcome to Atheist Discussion, a new community created by former members of The Thinking Atheist forum.

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Remove the Mysticism from Mathematics!
#51

Remove the Mysticism from Mathematics!
(02-27-2021, 08:52 PM)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:
(02-27-2021, 06:36 PM)tomilay Wrote: And this means its useful when used as a guide to facilitate our understanding the natural world rather than as a prescription of what that world ought to be.  It's a tool not immune to being misused.

That inability to distinguish between the prescriptive and the descriptive is not unique to math.

Yeah, you're describing a prescription for failure. Deadpan Coffee Drinker 

Big Grin
“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. 
Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
― Napoleon Bonaparte
The following 1 user Likes Chas's post:
  • Thumpalumpacus
Reply
#52

Remove the Mysticism from Mathematics!
(02-28-2021, 04:29 AM)Chas Wrote:
(02-27-2021, 08:52 PM)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:
(02-27-2021, 06:36 PM)tomilay Wrote: And this means its useful when used as a guide to facilitate our understanding the natural world rather than as a prescription of what that world ought to be.  It's a tool not immune to being misused.

That inability to distinguish between the prescriptive and the descriptive is not unique to math.

Yeah, you're describing a prescription for failure. Deadpan Coffee Drinker 

Big Grin

I've had this discussion with fellow musicians over the years, regarding music theory. I see music theory as descriptive, meaning that after I'm done playing, say, a jazz improv, if I'm recording it I can listen back and say "Yeah, I'm substituting a iim7b5 for a domV7 here" ... but many others seem to think that if you don't resolve a progression a certain way it simply isn't musical, because music theory says the "best resolution is" chord X, and if I resolve it to a different key-center then I'm doing it wrong.

I reckon that if the song works, it's good, and theory is useful in analyzing it after-the-fact so that I can cadge a trick to put into other places. So much pop music over the years is theoretically conventional, and absolutely boring.
On hiatus.
The following 3 users Like Thumpalumpacus's post:
  • skyking, mordant, tomilay
Reply
#53

Remove the Mysticism from Mathematics!
My sister ran off to study in Hawaii on a lark in the mid 60ś, and music theory was the class that just kicked her ass at the university.
She had a hole in the schedule, played piano and read music and thought it would be easy!
test signature
The following 2 users Like skyking's post:
  • Thumpalumpacus, mordant
Reply
#54

Remove the Mysticism from Mathematics!
My stepson is into 20th and 21st century classical music, which is to say, dissonant, un-lyrical stuff like serialism which plays by entirely different rules than your standard-issue Western music. There is definitely no "one right way" to do anything in music. Indeed, recently with easier and faster to use tools for digitally disassembling and reassembling various tonalities, musicians are inventing whole new musical forms. So ultimately music theory and analysis just describes what it sees and what is commonly done; it is not some kind of arbiter of "correctness".

That said, I am eternally grateful that my stepson uses head phones to listen to his music library ;-)
The following 2 users Like mordant's post:
  • Thumpalumpacus, Dānu
Reply




Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)