Category Archives: Archeology

On Knowing Ourselves

March 3, 2018 – 4:47 am

In a 2012 post in this blog, I criticized a 2009 essay called “50 Years of Stupid Grammar Advice.” The putative advice was that of Strunk and White. It was not in fact grammatical. They had written not the elements of grammar, but The Elements of Style. They gave style advice by precept and example. The advice is good, if well understood. The critic should recognize that, as I wrote, “Rules of style are supposed to induce thinking, not obedience.”

By David Pierce | Also posted in Collingwood, Leo Strauss, Nesin Mathematics Village, Philosophy, Pirsig, Plato, Principles of Art, Strunk and White, Turkey, West Virginia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (13)

Hypomnesis

July 30, 2017 – 6:35 pm

When is a help a hindrance? The Muses have provoked this question. They did this through their agents, the cicadas, who sang around the European Cultural Center of Delphi, during the 11th Panhellenic Logic Symposium, July 12–5, 2017.

     Cicada, European Cultural Center of Delphi, 2017.07.15     

Cicada, European Cultural Center of Delphi, 2017.07.15

My question has two particular instances.

  1. At a mathematical conference, can theorems “speak for themselves,” or should their presenters be at pains to help the listener appreciate the results?

  2. When the conference is in Greece, even at one of the country’s greatest archeological sites, does this enhance the reading of ancient Greek texts, or is it only a distraction?

Continue reading →

By David Pierce | Also posted in Archimedes, Art, Collingwood, Education, G. H. Hardy, Language, Logic, Mathematics, Philosophy, Plato, Principles of Art, Tourism, West Virginia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (11)

Thales of Miletus

December 24, 2016 – 11:01 am

This is about Thales of Miletus and what it means to study him. I am moved to ask what history is in the first place. It is a study of the freedom in which we face our conditions. Thales had his way of understanding the world, and we may benefit from trying to learn it.

“The Thaleses of the future are meeting in Didim, September 24, 2016”

“The Thaleses of the future are meeting in Didim,
September 24, 2016”

Continue reading →

By David Pierce | Also posted in Collingwood, Education, Euclid, Freedom, History, Leo Strauss, Mathematics, Nesin Mathematics Village, New Leviathan, Philosophy, Philosophy of History, Principles of Art, Tourism, Turkey | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (20)

How to Learn about People

November 13, 2016 – 4:19 am

A chance encounter with a Medieval definition of God, used as the title of a sculpture, leads to an ancient plane tree and to more consideration of what can go wrong with public opinion polls.

Ancient plane tree of Bayır, Marmaris Peninsula, September 9, 2010

Ancient plane tree of Bayır, Marmaris Peninsula, September 9, 2010

Continue reading →

By David Pierce | Also posted in Aristotle, “ceases to be a mind”, “God is a circle …”, Collingwood, Nesin Mathematics Village, Philosophy, Psychology, Turkey | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (5)

Thinking & Feeling

July 20, 2016 – 2:16 pm

This essay is written as a distraction from current events, though I make some reference to them. I am prompted by questions of analogy provoked by

  1. the similes of Homer, and

  2. a recent theater review in Harper’s that mentions the parables of Jesus.

DSC06654 (2)
Continue reading →

By David Pierce | Also posted in Collingwood, coup, Education, Harper’s, History, Homer, Language, Mathematics, Maugham, Midgley, Nature, Nesin Mathematics Village, Philosophy, Philosophy of History, Principles of Art | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Teos

May 19, 2015 – 10:41 am

This is about a visit to the ruins of the ancient Ionian city of Teos. These ruins are in what is now the district of Seferihisar, in the province of İzmir, on the Aegean coast of Turkey. Continue reading →

By David Pierce | Also posted in History, Nesin Mathematics Village, Tourism, Turkey | Tagged , , | Comments (2)