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(Old) Log24: Web Journal of
Steven H. Cullinane.


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m759.net/wordpress/.

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Name: Steven
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Gender: Male


Interests: Mathematics, literature.
Occupation: Retired
Industry: Computers (Software)


Website: visit my website


Member Since: 7/20/2002
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Archived Entries:
See log24.com.

Selected Past Entries:

Three Days
of the
Saint, 2002

12/6:
Santa vs.
the Volcano


12/7:
Satori at
Pearl Harbor


12/8:
Architecture
of Eternity


Some may feel that the Saint in question is Philip Berrigan, who joined Saburo Ienaga and Ivan Illich on Dec. 6, 2002.

Others may feel that the Saint is Don Ameche, who died on Dec. 6, 1993.

"Things change."

— SHC 12/9/02

Sequel

Stan Rice died on Dec. 9, 2002. A poem of his tells what happened next.

Eight is a Gate

Hollywood producer dies Dec. 14, meets Bach at Heaven's Gate. Realistic comedy.

The Diamond Project

Notes on dance, mortality, and "the still point" on the date of Irene Diamond's death.

Immortal Diamond,
or
NASA Meets Jesus

Thoughts on John O'Hara and G. M. Hopkins for James Joyce's birthday.

Blackbird Singing

The Fred Rogers memorial koan.

Art Wars

LeWitt vs. Witt

Stone, not Wood

best describes St. Peter

The Word

in the Desert

Art Wars:

Fahne Hoch

and

Thorny Crown


O'Hara's Crucifixion


Unity and Reciprocity

in mathematics

The Quality of Diamond


Da Vinci Code ,

Crimson Passion,

Cubist Crucifixion.

Truth and Style


The Line


Bush Mutiny


Symmetry and Change


A Shot at Redemption


Mathematics and Narrative


The Judas Seat


Countdown


My math sites:

Finitegeometry.org

Finitegeometry.org/sc

The Diamond 16 Puzzle

Notes on Finite Geometry

The Diamond Theorem

The Geometry of Qubits

Diamond Theory

Diamond Theory
in 1937


Galois Geometry

A Four-Color Theorem

Latin-Square Geometry

Walsh Functions

The Fano Plane Revisualized

Cube Space, 1984-2003

Knight Moves

The MOG

Inscapes

The Diamond Theory of Truth

Logos and Logic

Literary-Philosophical
Puzzle Notes


A Mathematician's Aesthetics

Reflection Groups in Finite Geometry

A Reflection Group of Order 168

The Algebra of Groups

Reflection Groups: The Missing Link

Geometry of
the I Ching


The Diamond Archetype

Modal Theology

The Eightfold Way and Solomon's Seal

Crystal and Dragon in Diamond Theory

Poetry's Bones

Time Fold

War of Ideas

The Proof
and the Lie


Lemniscate
to Langlands


Symmetry Groups

Block Designs

Finite Relativity

Cognitive Blending

Geometry of the 4x4 Square

Visualizing GL(2,p)

Pattern Groups

Ideas and Art

Jung's Imago

Theme and Variations

The Geometry of Logic

Space-Time and a Finite Model

Quilt Geometry

Duality and Symmetry

Polster on Pictures

Kaleidoscope

The Dharwadker Files

Certified Crank

Dharwadker at Wikipedia

Coset Representatives

Archived Journal


Radio I Like

Plano TX KHYI

WAMU 88.5FM

WHRB Harvard

BBC 3

Live365.com


Favorite Books

The Practical Cogitator

Style

The Reader Over Your Shoulder

The Oxford Book of English Prose

Fancies and Goodnights


Other Online Commonplace Books

David Lavery

Peter J. Cameron

A. M. Kuchling

Constant Reader

Identity Theory

J. Jacobs

M. Magnus

ChrisNet

Anonymous

Sites I Read:

Bloglines list

Ping form

SubscriptionsSites I Read

Posting Calendar

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Saturday, July 26, 2003

The Transcendent
Signified

"God is both the transcendent signifier
and transcendent signified."

— Caryn Broitman,
Deconstruction and the Bible

"Central to deconstructive theory is the notion that there is no 'transcendent signified,' or 'logos,' that ultimately grounds 'meaning' in language...."

— Henry P. Mills,
The Significance of Language,
Footnote 2

"It is said that the students of medieval Paris came to blows in the streets over the question of universals. The stakes are high, for at issue is our whole conception of our ability to describe the world truly or falsely, and the objectivity of any opinions we frame to ourselves. It is arguable that this is always the deepest, most profound problem of philosophy. It structures Plato's (realist) reaction to the sophists (nominalists). What is often called 'postmodernism' is really just nominalism, colourfully presented as the doctrine that there is nothing except texts. It is the variety of nominalism represented in many modern humanities, paralysing appeals to reason and truth."

-- Simon Blackburn, Think,
Oxford University Press, 1999, page 268

The question of universals is still being debated in Paris.  See my July 25 entry,

A Logocentric Meditation.

That entry discusses an essay on
mathematics and postmodern thought
by Michael Harris,
professor of mathematics
at l’Université Paris 7 - Denis Diderot.

A different essay by Harris has a discussion that gets to the heart of this matter: whether pi exists as a platonic idea apart from any human definitions.  Harris notes that "one might recall that the theorem that pi is transcendental can be stated as follows: the homomorphism Q[X] --> R taking X to pi is injective.  In other words, pi can be identified algebraically with X, the variable par excellence."

Harris illustrates this with
an X in a rectangle:

For the complete passage, click here.

If we rotate the Harris X by 90 degrees, we get a representation of the Christian Logos that seems closely related to the God-symbol of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey.  On the left below, we have a (1x)4x9 black monolith, representing God, and on the right below, we have the Harris slab, with X representing (as in "Xmas," or the Chi-rho page of the Book of Kells) Christ... who is, in theological terms, also "the variable par excellence."


Kubrick's
monolith

Harris's
slab

For a more serious discussion of deconstruction and Christian theology, see

Walker Percy's Semiotic.


Funeral March

John Schlesinger dead at 77;
'Midnight Cowboy' director

 
Anthony Breznican
Associated Press
Jul. 26, 2003 12:00 AM

LOS ANGELES - Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger, who daringly brought gay characters into mainstream cinema with Midnight Cowboy and tapped into nightmares with the teeth-drilling torture of Marathon Man, died Friday at 77.

The British-born filmmaker.... died about 5:30 a.m....

Schlesinger also directed The Day of the Locust, based on a novel by Nathanael West.

See Heaven, Hell, and Hollywood and

Dogma Part II: Amores Perros.

From the latter:

"Then you know your body's sent,
Don't care if you don't pay rent,
Sky is high and so am I,
If you're a viper -- a vi-paah."

The Day of the Locust,
    by Nathanael West (1939),
    New Directions paperback,
    1969, page 162

This song may be downloaded at

Pot Culture, 1910-1960.

That same site begins with a traditional Mexican song...

"La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
 ya no puede caminar,
 porque no quiere,
 porque le falta
 marihuana que fumar.

("The cockroach, the cockroach,
 can't walk anymore,
 because he doesn't want to,
 because he has no
 marihuana to smoke.")

This suggests an appropriate funeral march for John Schlesinger:

"Ya murió la cucaracha, ya la llevan a enterrar..." - La Cucaracha

Those attending Schlesinger's wake, as opposed to his funeral, may wish to perform other numbers from the Pot Culture page, which offers a variety of "viper" songs.

Bright Star and Dark Lady

"Mexico is a solar country -- but it is also a black country, a dark country. This duality of Mexico has preoccupied me since I was a child."

-- Octavio Paz,
quoted by Homero Aridjis

Bright Star


Amen.

 

Dark Lady

For the meaning of the above symbols, see
Kubrick's 1x4x9 monolith in 2001,
the Halmos tombstone in Measure Theory,
and the Fritz Leiber Changewar stories.

No se puede vivir sin amar.

Concluding Unscientific Postscript:

Oh, yes... the question of
Heaven or Hell for John Schlesinger... 

Recall that he also directed the delightful
Cold Comfort Farm and see
last year's entry for this date.


Friday, July 25, 2003

Realism in Literature:
Under the Volcano

Mexican Volcano Blast
Scares Residents

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:13 p.m. EDT Friday, July 25, 2003

PUEBLA, Mexico (AP) -- Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano shot glowing rock and ash high into the air Friday night, triggering a thunderous explosion that panicked some residents in nearby communities.

Here are 3 webcam views of the volcano.   Nothing to see at the moment.

Literary background:

Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano,

Plato, Pegasus, and the Evening Star,

A Mass for Lucero,

Shining Forth,

and, as background for today's earlier entry on Platonism and Derrida,

The Shining of May 29.

Vignette

For more on Plato and Christian theology, consult the highly emotional site

Further Into the Depths of Satan:

"...in The Last Battle on page 170 [C. S.] Lewis has Digory saying, 'It's all in Plato, all in Plato.' Now, Lewis calls Plato 'an overwhelming theological genius' (Reflections on the Psalms, p. 80)...."

The title "Further Into the Depths of Satan," along with the volcano readings above, suggests a reading from a related site:

Gollum and the Mystery of Evil:

"Gollum here clearly represents Frodo’s hidden self. It is 'as if we are witnessing the darkest night of the soul and one side attempting to master the other' (Jane Chance 102). Then Frodo, whose finger has been bitten off, cries out, and Gollum holds the Ring aloft, shrieking: 'Precious, precious, precious! My Precious! O my Precious!' (RK, VI, 249). At this point, stepping too near the edge, he falls into the volcano, taking the Ring with him. With this, the mountain shakes.' "

In the above two-step vignette, the part of Gollum is played by the author of "Further Into the Depths of Satan," who called  C. S. Lewis a fool "that was and is extremely useful to his father the devil."

See Matthew 5:22: "...whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." 


For Jung's 7/26 Birthday:
A Logocentric Meditation

Leftist academics are trying to pull a fast one again.  An essay in the most prominent American mathematical publication tries to disguise a leftist attack on Christian theology as harmless philosophical woolgathering.

In a review of Vladimir Tasic's Mathematics and the Roots of Postmodern Thought, the reviewer, Michael Harris, is being less than candid when he discusses Derrida's use of "logocentrism":

"Derrida uses the term 'logocentrism'... as 'the metaphysics of phonetic writing'...."

Notices of the American Mathematical Society, August 2003, page 792

We find a rather different version of logocentrism in Tasic's own Sept. 24, 2001, lecture "Poststructuralism and Deconstruction: A Mathematical History," which is "an abridged version of some arguments" in Tasic's book on mathematics and postmodernism:

"Derrida apparently also employs certain ideas of formalist mathematics in his critique of idealist metaphysics: for example, he is on record saying that 'the effective progress of mathematical notation goes along with the deconstruction of metaphysics.'

Derrida's position is rather subtle. I think it can be interpreted as a valiant sublation of two completely opposed schools in mathematical philosophy. For this reason it is not possible to reduce it to a readily available philosophy of mathematics. One could perhaps say that Derrida continues and critically reworks Heidegger's attempt to 'deconstruct' traditional metaphysics, and that his method is more 'mathematical' than Heidegger's because he has at his disposal the entire pseudo-mathematical tradition of structuralist thought. He has himself implied in an interview given to Julia Kristeva that mathematics could be used to challenge 'logocentric theology,' and hence it does not seem unreasonable to try looking for the mathematical roots of his philosophy."

The unsuspecting reader would not know from Harris's review that Derrida's main concern is not mathematics, but theology.  His 'deconstruction of metaphysics' is actually an attack on Christian theology.

From "Derrida and Deconstruction," by David Arneson, a University of Manitoba professor and writer on literary theory:

"Logocentrism: 'In the beginning was the word.' Logocentrism is the belief that knowledge is rooted in a primeval language (now lost) given by God to humans. God (or some other transcendental signifier: the Idea, the Great Spirit, the Self, etc.) acts a foundation for all our thought, language and action. He is the truth whose manifestation is the world."

Some further background, putting my July 23 entry on Lévi-Strauss and structuralism in the proper context:

Part I.  The Roots of Structuralism

"Literary science had to have a firm theoretical basis..."

Part II.  Structuralism/Poststructuralism

"Most [structuralists] insist, as Levi-Strauss does, that structures are universal, therefore timeless."

Part III.  Structuralism and
             Jung's Archetypes

Jung's "theories, like those of Cassirer and Lévi-Strauss, command for myth a central cultural position, unassailable by reductive intellectual methods or procedures."

And so we are back to logocentrism, with the Logos — God in the form of story, myth, or archetype — in the "central cultural position."

What does all this have to do with mathematics?  See

Plato's Diamond,

Rosalind Krauss on Art -

"the Klein group (much beloved of Structuralists)"

Another Michael Harris Essay, Note 47 -

"From Krauss's article I learned that the Klein group is also called the Piaget group."

and Jung on Quaternity:
      Beyond the Fringe -

"...there is no denying the fact that [analytical] psychology, like an illegitimate child of the spirit, leads an esoteric, special existence beyond the fringe of what is generally acknowledged to be the academic world."

What attitude should mathematicians have towards all this? 

Towards postmodern French
  atheist literary/art theorists -

Mathematicians should adopt the attitude toward "the demimonde of chic academic theorizing" expressed in Roger Kimball's essay, Feeling Sorry for Rosalind Krauss.

Towards logocentric German
  Christian literary/art theorists -

Mathematicians should, of course, adopt a posture of humble respect, tugging their forelocks and admitting their ignorance of Christian theology.  They should then, if sincere in their desire to honestly learn something about logocentric philosophy, begin by consulting the website

The Quest for the Fiction of an Absolute.

For a better known, if similarly disrespected, "illegitimate child of the spirit," see my July 22 entry.


Democracy in America

Jay Leno's man-in-the-street "Duh" interviews are no longer funny.  See

America's Ignorant Voters and

Voting Machine Fraud Likely.



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