I'm sorry about this rant, but I don't know how else to respond. It depends on your philosophy of education. The thinking behind all education is a me...
OK. I remembered WIttgenstein's oracular remark that death is not a part of life. My concern that the limit is not generated by the defining formula i...
I won't disagree with any of that. The obvious questions are when the pendulum will start to move the other way and how much damage will be done befor...
You are not alone. I also think the prospects are very very gloomy. I have the impression that many people all round the world have a sense of impendi...
I'm sorry if I took you the wrong way. I don't understand this. Money represents resources. So the distribution of money is allocation of resources. S...
Our only hope is substantial and persistent political pressure. What else is there? How else would you ensure "constructive and healthy competition", ...
I'll tell you what - I'll promise not to fall into that fallcy if you'll promise not to fall into mine. OK? Here's my side of the bargain. describes t...
Tell me about it. It isn't an easy problem to shift the views of the rich and (therefore) powerful. It doesn't help that there is no objective criteri...
H'm. In principle, that is a valid complaint. But, back when I was involved, something like 60% of vacancies for graduates (i.e. those requiring a BA ...
Yes. I got enough from it to realize a) that ? is one of a class of numbers and b) that it comes after the natural numbers (so doesn't pretend to be g...
Well, be careful. Most anecdotes have an agenda behind them - not that statistics don't. You wouldn't believe the impression I get from the anecdotes ...
Well, yes. A market can only exist in a legal framework, which is a form of regulation. I'm only referring, n short-hand to the movement at the end of...
I've watched this debate for a long time - though I don't claim to have understood all of it. But I think those two quotes show that you are talking p...
Interesting. Under capitalism, you think that people get things from an entirely passive system, and under communism, the system dishes things out to ...
The trick is, to find something that is objective, or at least rational, or at least acceptable to those who are rejected. As things are, the first tw...
Good question. The short answer is, public discussion followed by a political deal - not because it is right, but because it is practical. A consensus...
I do agree with you that people seem not to understand the meaning of limit in this context. Many of them seem to think that calculus solves the probl...
I'm so sorry. There's a small typo in what I said. It should have read:- Though you are also quite right to observe that there are also financial oppo...
The complication is that the acclaim and reputation tends to result in financial opportunities. That was certainly true in ancient Greece and I would ...
The problem with Margaret Thatcher is that she thought that a dumb quip is a substitute for serious thinking. But then, she was a politician. She also...
Yes, it does. But there is a small but significant mistranslation there. I have no problem with saying that "infinite" means "endless", but "ad" does ...
I seem to have misjudged you. I should not have presented you with a completely inappropriate argument. I can only respect your position. There are so...
There's truth in that. There is a problem around that. But welfare is more than that. "Simply" misses the point. ... and earing the money to pay the t...
I very much agree with the first sentence. So you are content to sit on the side-lines watching what goes on, paying your share of the price for letti...
Why doesn't he worry about the education of everyone else? The best way - and the only safe way - to get them to believe that the good of the ciry is ...
You are already paying a price by not preventing them from continuing in their life of crime. Passing laws, buying alarms and locks, and funding the p...
OK. I doubt I would sympathize with the criminals. It depends how they got in to crime. You would sling them in jail for a long time - at your own cos...
You have more faith in educators and literary figures than I do. But it would be best if we could accept that most people - even educators and literar...
I'm not sure it is even a puzzle if it is framed in terms of constant speeds by both. Let's say Achilles gives the tortoise a head start of 100 units ...
Well, I don't subscribe to Kant's view. I guess it depends on circumstances, with a bias towards telling the truth. "Myth" is complicated. For me, a m...
That strikes me as simple common sense. I've never met anyone who actually said that. Still, one never knows... But I have encountered people who offe...
I hope you exaggerate. I agree that insisting on equality of outcomes is more complicated than is usually acknowledged. Where outcomes are influenced ...
I think they are interesting because they dangle the prospect of completing a task and persuade us to ignore the reality of the impossibility of the t...
Am I right to think that you are not saying that all the stairs can be counted, even though any stair could be included in a counting sequence? That's...
I'm all in favour of that. I was delighted when that approach began, though I have lost touch somewhat with how it has developed. It was a relief to b...
Yes. It is hard to put right an inequity that has become established but perhaps even harder to prevent one getting established in the first place. Ye...
Did I suggest that any of them was? If so, I apologize. Perhaps I was a bit lazy in not giving a list. I hesitated because I'm not sure your list is c...
I feared we might end up with a discussion that is more than I can handle right now. I would have to re-read the Republic first in any case. Some comm...
I thought that a free market meant that everyone had equal access to it and equal rights of contract and property. Marxism isn't bothered by inequalit...
Actually, I've bethought myself and realized that the step numbers will only align if the number of steps is odd. If it is even, they won't be such a ...
Presumable it would be at (the number of steps in the first staircase divided by 2). So? Yes. With a real staircase would exist in both contexts and i...
But the city has no business of its own, or rather the business of the city is the sum of everybody's business. So when the philosopher takes on the b...
Yes. Arguably, that was Plato's big mistake. The relationship between part and whole is quite different in the two cases. He assumed it was the same. ...
In a sense, you are right, and Socrates doesn't explicitly say that it is. He does say that his hardest task is not to refute that actual accusations,...
I'm flattered that you replied. It was just a bit of fun and I expected to be totally ignored or possibly reprimanded. But since you have replied........
Yes, that's right. Plato's Socrates says that he doesn't fear death because nothing can harm a good person. I understand the argument, but I don't put...
Perhaps so. At least it seems that he is acknowledging that such alchemy exists. Though quite a lot of his argument here is prudential rather than pri...
AN interesting quote. It does indeed point to the threshold between public and private aspects, or at least between what should be prescribed and what...
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