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Article 5800 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: atten@phil.ruu.nl (Mark van Atten)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: penrose
Message-ID: <atten.706443932@groucho.phil.ruu.nl>
Date: 21 May 92 10:25:32 GMT
References: <1992May18.194416.27171@hellgate.utah.edu> 	<1992May19.025328.5332@news.media.mit.edu> 	<1992May19.113549.9679@hellgate.utah.edu> 	<1992May19.194145.7008@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com> <1992May20.225000.9959@cenatls.cena.dgac.fr>
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alliot@cenatls.cena.dgac.fr (Jean-Marc Alliot) writes:


>shanks@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com wrote:

>> Kenneth Tolman wrote:
>> >Kind of weird, but it is because of the foundations of western thought
>> >which have led us into a dead end of thought.
>> >Perhaps we are reaching the end of western civilization, as it brings
>> >itself to a close with its own foundations. 
>> >If you notice the train of western thought, it has absolutely revolted
>> >and twisted against and denied a lot of things.  Why?  If you examine
>> >what it is fleeing from, you will discover quite a few interesting things
>> >which simultaneously demystifies and mystifies a lot of subjects.  Kind
>> >of weird.
>> 
>> Perhaps you should define "western thought" before you write its
>> obituary.
>> 
>Hum... About the decline of the Western culture, I could at least
>recommand two references, first Edmund Husserl's Krisis and Oswald
>Spengler book "Le declin de l'Occident" (Sorry, I don't know the
>english title). This last book contains also an interesting chapter on the
>differences between Modern mathematics and Greek mathematics. 

The English title of Spengler's book is "The decline of the West". It's the
worst garbage I've ever seen, but at least he is seriously trying to solve
an interesting problem.
(By the way, the chapter on math. is also included in Newman's "The World of
Mathematics").

Best wishes,
Mark.


