Five questions from c_mantix
1. Is it ethical to experiment on animals to find cures to terminal human diseases?
Yes! Naturally I think steps should be taken to minimize any suffering but I'm not going to sacrifice the prospect of a cure for, say, MS over undue concerns for, say, chickens.
2. Is it ever right to 'impeach' or 'force out of power' the duly elected leader of a country?
I think the answer again has to be "yes" but I would say only if the leader in question has done something seriously improper such as breaching the constitution or taking bribes. I think the notion that a leader is entitled to his full elected term even if he is behaving monstrously is self evidently flawed.
3. "The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius is the greatest text of spiritual philosophy ever written". Agree/Disagree. Comment.
I'm not sure I have the knowledge to make such a definitive pronouncement. It's a work I admire and find myself rereading from time to time for sure but I could say that about many works of Plato and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations too.
4. Are mathematicians born or made?
I think it's a bit of both. While I think that any reasonably intelligent person can reach a much higher level of mathematical attainment than is usual in our society(1) I'm not sure that everyone is wired to handle the level of abstraction that comes in at some point in undergraduate (let alone graduate) work. I saw this at university where a class of people with top notch 'A' level grades in mathematics lost about 30% of its members in the course of the first year, mostly because of an inability to handle a quantum jump in abstraction and rigour. That said, mathematics is hard work and just as top notch musicians and dancers have to do a lot of basic repetitive stuff to perform at their best, so do mathematicians.
fn1: That there are intelligent people who claim they can't "do maths" (by which they mean the stuff a reasonably bright eleven year old can handle) and that that is OK disgusts me. It's like saying it's OK for scientists to be illiterate.
5. Which book (fiction or non-fiction) do you wish you had written?
Gosh! The Koran perhaps, so that I could tell people not to take it so bloody literally. Seriously, there are so many I wish I'd written. Maybe I should pick Edwin Abbott's Flatland because I can't think of any other book that has influenced so many young people to think seriously about mathematics.
Yes! Naturally I think steps should be taken to minimize any suffering but I'm not going to sacrifice the prospect of a cure for, say, MS over undue concerns for, say, chickens.
2. Is it ever right to 'impeach' or 'force out of power' the duly elected leader of a country?
I think the answer again has to be "yes" but I would say only if the leader in question has done something seriously improper such as breaching the constitution or taking bribes. I think the notion that a leader is entitled to his full elected term even if he is behaving monstrously is self evidently flawed.
3. "The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius is the greatest text of spiritual philosophy ever written". Agree/Disagree. Comment.
I'm not sure I have the knowledge to make such a definitive pronouncement. It's a work I admire and find myself rereading from time to time for sure but I could say that about many works of Plato and Marcus Aurelius' Meditations too.
4. Are mathematicians born or made?
I think it's a bit of both. While I think that any reasonably intelligent person can reach a much higher level of mathematical attainment than is usual in our society(1) I'm not sure that everyone is wired to handle the level of abstraction that comes in at some point in undergraduate (let alone graduate) work. I saw this at university where a class of people with top notch 'A' level grades in mathematics lost about 30% of its members in the course of the first year, mostly because of an inability to handle a quantum jump in abstraction and rigour. That said, mathematics is hard work and just as top notch musicians and dancers have to do a lot of basic repetitive stuff to perform at their best, so do mathematicians.
fn1: That there are intelligent people who claim they can't "do maths" (by which they mean the stuff a reasonably bright eleven year old can handle) and that that is OK disgusts me. It's like saying it's OK for scientists to be illiterate.
5. Which book (fiction or non-fiction) do you wish you had written?
Gosh! The Koran perhaps, so that I could tell people not to take it so bloody literally. Seriously, there are so many I wish I'd written. Maybe I should pick Edwin Abbott's Flatland because I can't think of any other book that has influenced so many young people to think seriously about mathematics.