Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bbn!gatech!hubcap!fpst From: fpst@hubcap.UUCP (Steve Stevenson) Newsgroups: comp.lang.misc Subject: Re: Language illiteracy Message-ID: <1585@hubcap.UUCP> Date: 9 May 88 12:48:57 GMT References: <11526@ut-sally.UUCP> Distribution: na Organization: Clemson University, Clemson, SC Lines: 31 Ya'll are missing a fundamental point. There are any number of anecdotes to point out that language can be misleading - if not downright deadly. Else propaganda will not work. MORAL: beware relying on unevaluated language. Up until *Grundlagen der Arithmetik* there was not the uniformity of concept of language. *Principia* tried to rectify this - giving rise to logical positivism, with which we are stuck today. Note that the prime movers of positivism - Whitehead, Russel and Wittgenstien - all gave up on it. The strict separation of syntax and semantics is an artifact of Noam Chomsky's view of linguistics. Remember, Aristotle and all logicians to Frege were interested in debate - a much different problem than axiomatic deductive theories. For those of you who are in love with things mathematical: in my experience, mathematicians are the hardest people to teach programming. They have not concept of evaluation. [For the record, I'm a mathematician by training]. Another difficult problem is that cultural imprinting is what leads to clarity and semantics in most mathematics. Besides, there are many idiomatic uses of notation which are understood but not technically correct. {Begin Heresy Mathematical notation and content evolved in support of the sciences. Please recall that Gauss - the Prince of Mathematics -was what we would call an astrophysicst today. If you want to emulate mathematics, then support your equivalent of "the sciences." End Heresy}-- Steve Stevenson fpst@hubcap.clemson.edu (aka D. E. Stevenson), fpst@clemson.csnet Department of Computer Science, comp.parallel Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-1906 (803)656-5880.mabell