“She loved the light too much too fear the flame.”
Those words have stuck with me my whole life. I cannot place exactly where I heard it or read it, but it has ended up consuming me. Slowly, as time has passed and I have grown older I have realized that it truly captures human nature without distorting or corrupting it; that is, all of us, no matter how sane or in control of ourselves will always want the very things that will cause our demise. Most of the prominent literature is based on this concept: Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Anna Karenina, Misery.
I want to teach, read and research. Compared to teaching, I find other professions boring and monotonous. On the other hand, teaching I find very entertaining. I never want to do a 9 to 5 desk job in my life. I idea of sitting on the same desk everyday for 8 hours frightens me. I have an aversion to boredom which I have a difficulty describing in words. Standing out in a crowd is not what I planned to achieve. Rather tha preferring “The Dark Knight”’s Joker, I prefer the one fro “Batman: The Animated Series”. Probably because of the fact that he is voiced by Luke Skywalker is truly enthralling for me. Due to my nagging curiosity, I have no doubt I will get involved in research. I am willing to go at lengths for a certain piece of information.
I plan on majoring in Mathematics and Economics. Also a minor in philosophy. While studying the creativity dampening A Level syllabus, I started asking questions that no one around me was willing to answer. How did mathematical subject matter reach the stage it is in now? What is the relation between logic and mathematics? How is it that the abstract world of mathematics is connected to our materialistic world? What importance does an abstract mathematical object hold in the materialistic world? Why is it that the Pythagoras' theorem can be proved in so many different ways? What makes mathematics the universal language? How does one solve morality based questions in economics? How is it just to support economic growth of one specific unit, and not of the others? I tried getting the answers myself. With the luxury of the internet available to me, I tried doing research. But it seems that text can only lead you on to a certain extent, after that you need someone to guide you. I did get the answer to one question. “What is economics?” But the answer I got was nothing but an amalgamation, or rather a survey of definitional and territorial difficulties. The nagging curiosity in me feels that I need to know the answer to these questions. Only then will I be able to fully comprehend what I want to comprehend.
Game theory. It consists of all of the above mentioned disciples, i.e. applied mathematics, economics, and philosophy. It tries to mathematically capture human behavior, with ones decision based on the decisions made by others. Then there is also decision theory - multiply the value of the result from decision with the probability of that result happening, higher the number, the better the decision is. Mathematically proving that the decisions that humans make, which they consider beneficial for themselves, actually end up having a negative impact on them. The complexity of neurons traveling through a human brain, leading to the human making a decision. Simplified to an equation.
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I have this knack of snooping around on random blogs I can find and it's always refreshing to find interest in the philosophy that underlies the scientist disciplines such as Math and Economics in the students of our nation. Abstract conceptions firstly, are not universal- such as the number system. Due to post-colonial influences, one is able to pin down the various biases that lie at the heart of math as we see today. Also the number system has several Greek influences- attaching the conceptions such as "Rational" and "Irrational" to numbers- which have their origins in the Greek philosophy as qualities of men- in the hierarchy of the state (I'm bringing in Plato here). Also, due to the very closely interacting Greek and Arabic philosophical systems, we see Greek influence on the Arabic numeral system as the Arabs translated Greek texts and incorporated them in their abstractions revolutionizing mathematics.
ReplyDeleteAs for Economics, the whole discipline is based on assumptions and there can be no lasse-faire Economic system as Economics serves us. To me, that's a huge fallacy that Economists subscribe to and are content with. Well, this is a huge debate that won't fit in here. But, I would say, your area of interest is more philosophy than anything else. I would say so, because I got my answers in Philosophy- Math and Economics are taught as an array of blatant assumptions and as fixed disciplines that need not be probed into in our country. Nevertheless, I highly encourage you to philosophize.
Regards,
A pleasant intruder.