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Article 5197 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: biesel@javelin.sim.es.com (Heiner Biesel)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Peano and the commerce of ideas and representatio
Message-ID: <1992Apr22.154359.19758@javelin.sim.es.com>
Date: 22 Apr 92 15:43:59 GMT
References: <kv3lf9INNe8g@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> <1992Apr20.211210.11342@husc3.harvard.edu> <556@trwacs.fp.trw.com> <1992Apr21.193630.17506@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> <558@trwacs.fp.trw.com>
Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation
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erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com (Harry Erwin) writes:

>chalmers@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (David Chalmers) writes:

>>In article <556@trwacs.fp.trw.com> erwin@trwacs.fp.trw.com (Harry Erwin) writes:

>>>There was an enjoyable book published many years ago titled "Arithmetic
>>>Made Complicated" (or something similar), which took a category- theoretic
>>>view of "simple" arithmetic, introducing such concepts as universal
>>>objects and commutative diagrams.

>>_Mathematics Made Difficult_, by Carl E. Linderholm; Wolfe (London), 1971.
>>One of the funniest books in existence.

>Thanks, Dave. I found it in a library and have never been able to buy it.
>Perhaps I should have stolen it when I had the chance. 

Fourteen years ago, I, too, came across a copy of it in a library. I saw
my chances and I took 'em. I've managed to live with the guilt thus far.

>Agreed, for a
>modern mathematician, one of the funniest books in existence, but it also
>provided one of the most understandable introductions to category theory
>I've ever seen. (It's not accidental that we used to refer to CT as
>Abstract Nonsense.) Of course, I'm biased, since I learned real analysis
>from Errett Bishop.

In that case, do you have an answer to one of the problems in the book:
which numbers are not merely irrational, but also manic-depressive?

Regards,
       Heiner biesel@thrall.sim.es.com


