« Number and Numbers | Main | Lovecraft »
January 16, 2005
Surreal Numbers
Now including the first section of part I "Greek Number and Modern Number'.
And in PDF, and, for the many graecophiles hereabouts, now using symbol font (not sure whether the fonts are embedded or not, and it seems impossible to add accents to the letters in the symbol font, so the greek bits are still not entirely correct).
I rescind my reservations, as this is actually the most enjoyable and clearest Badiou I have read so far...but I still get uneasy when he takes that characteristic sudden leap from the icy clarity of set-theory into the hallelujah stratosphere with his "uncountable" events. And there still remains the problem, what exactly is added by calling something an 'ontology' and relating it to Being? Let us read on...
Posted by undercurrent at January 16, 2005 04:13 PM
Comments
thank you for the pdf, and the greek.
you piqued my interest on the greek - some links that may be of interest to you ...
[1] http://mathforum.org/epigone/historia/herdnunlun
[2] http://mathforum.org/epigone/historia/flecholdim
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics_and_God
even though i know how to add 2 + 2 together haven't the slighest idea what is said here (which i bumped into with the greek): "Is the Halting probability a Dedekind real number?" -- you may find this of interest because -- "Now, a point of some significance is that, since standard interpretations of classical theory do not explicitly distinguish between well-defined mathematical concepts and well-defined mathematical objects, the distinction between a non-constructively defined Chaitin real number (Omega), and a Dedekind real number (which provides the foundation for classical mathematical theory) remains implicit; it is thus not clear whether the significance ascribed to mathematical assertions about the former can be meaningfully, and significantly, extended to the latter".
http://alixcomsi.com/Is_the_Halting_probability.htm
Posted by: gwendolyn at January 17, 2005 03:48 PM