If a cone were cut by a plane parallel to the base, what ought one to think of the surfaces resulting from the section: are they equal or unequal? If they are unequal, they will make the cone have many steplike indentations and unevennesses; but if they are equal, the sections will be equal, and the cone will appear to have the same property as a cylinder, being made up of equal, not unequal, circles, which is most absurd.--From Maxims of Democritus--
"Philosophers" don't do math much anymore; they don't seem to do much of anything anymore, all the things they used to think about seem to have been taken away from them. But all the old philosophers we learn about, they didn't refuse to consider something because it wasn't "philosophy"; they put their noses into everything and were influenced by it. How practical it used to be to have a philosopher around!
4 comments:
Is an integer number line smooth or dotted?
Hey, please be so kind as to post when you get to Democritus on atoms.
Hey, please be so kind as to post when you get to Democritus on atoms.
I'd love to, but it may be other people talking about his ideas. Most of his works are gone. (Plato wanted them all burned.)
I'd never really looked into the pre-Socratic philosophers before. There's so much to know and so little time.
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