Liberal Arts Blog — Hymn To The Triangle — The Math Thing, The Engineering Thing, The Syllogism Analogy
Liberal Arts Blog — Monday is the Joy of Math, Statistics, Shapes, and Numbers Day
Today’s Topic: Hymn to the Triangle — The Math Thing, the Engineering Thing, the Syllogism Analogy
The triangle is a miracle. A source of constant wonder. All triangles have angles that add up to 180 degrees! All right triangles conform to the equation that the square of the longest side is the sum of the square of the other two sides! Wow! You can use the similarity of triangles to compute things like the height of a tree or a pyramid using its shadows. In engineering, triangles are notable for their rigidity. Networks of triangles are called trusses and the Eiffel Tower is just one big giant truss. Today, the topic is the idea of reasoning as a truss — a network of triangles, that is of inter-connected syllogisms (that is, triangles of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion). So for any argument the key question is what is the core syllogism, the base triangle. Below, three case studies: the Israel-Palestine conflict, the meaning of justice, and abortion. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT — a little mathematical syllogism
1. Major premise: If Christians have a right to 150 countries and Muslims to 50, how is it that Jews, the most persecuted minority in the history of humanity and the mother faith of both Christianity and Islam have in the minds of so many, not have a right to even one?
2. Minor premise: if the Jews have a right to any land anywhere how is it not the land of Israel?
3. Conclusion: time to move on.
THE MEANING OF JUSTICE — the proportionality thing
1. Major premise: no proportionality of guilt or innocence to the evidence, no justice.
2. Minor premise: no proportionality of punishment to crime, no justice.
3. Conclusion: why is there not universal recognition that justice demanded capital punishment for the perpetrator of the Utoya massacre in which 69 were killed in cold blood?
ABORTION — the balancing thing
1. Major premise I: A woman has a right to choose.
2. Major premise II: a fetus has a right to life.
3. Conclusion: humanity has decided that the former over-rides the latter early in a pregnancy and the latter the former late in the pregnancy.
QUOTE OF THE MONTH — Have you made your own Bible yet?
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
Last four years of posts organized thematically:
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned this week related to math, statistics, or numbers in general.
Or, even better, the coolest or most important thing you learned in your life related to math.
This is your chance to make someone else’s day. And to consolidate in your memory something you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something dear to your heart. Continuity is key to depth of thought.
