Re: Barbarians vs All Blacks 1973

Martyn Winters wrote:
> On the contrary, you are the one talking cods here, by getting away
> from the point. We're not talking about the last 200 years, we're
> talking about now. The achievments of science are undeniable, but must
> be counter balanced by the negative side such as pollution,
> technological weapons etc. Also, let's also not get away from the core
> argument: i.e. Mathematicians are too highly regarded compared to
> artists, particularly when the word genius gets bandied about.

You are the one who started this philosophical debate on the relative
value of maths/science versus art. History is pretty clear on in the
issue. You don't want to include history in the discussion because
it flatly contradicts your claims.

We are currently enjoying the fruits of the scientific revolution,
which has resulted in a historically uprecendented improvement
in the welfare of the human race. In the 2000 years before 1800,
there was little change in the condition of the average human in
Europe in terms of life expectency, child mortality and various
other measures of the standard of living. Since the scientific
revolution there has been an exponential improvement in all
these measures as a direct result of the advances in maths and
science.

People have been painting pictures, writing poetry, composing music
and stories for millenia. It's only in the last couple of hundred
years that the human race has learned to use a pure abstract
symbolic language (mathematical squiggles) as tools to do anything
from building a steam engine to putting a man on the moon. Bring
an ancient Roman forward in time and show them around the best
art gallary in the world or bring them to a music concert or to see
a play and they might be mildly impressed with what has been
achieved in the last 2000 years. Show them something as trivial
as an electric drill and it would absolutely blow their mind.
You lack a sense of wonder if you cannot see this.

Mathematicians and scientist are, if anything, not regarded highly
enough. The average man on the street would be able to name
10 times as many artists, musicians, authors, etc. as they could
mathematicians and scientists.

.

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