Help me find an old comment on the ancient greek philosophy of math December 14, 2010 10:13 AM   Subscribe

Looking for a comment about the philosophy of ancient Greek mathematics.

I can't remember the thread, but the comment was expounding on what the ancient Greeks considered to be math, and what their philosophy was on what math was for.

I found it interesting at the time, but after reviewing my favs for "greek" and "math" and similar combos, it seems that for some reason I didn't favorite it (which is weird because I'm pretty liberal with the favs).

Similar searching with the site search and google with site:metafilter.com hasn't helped me.

I also seem to recall that it was posted by a fairly prolific commenter, like koeselitz, or loquacious, or someone like that, but neither of them seems to have a similar comment in their history.

So, its been driving me nuts trying to recall and find this comment. I don't know why, it just struck me as interesting, and now its lost to me.
posted by Reverend John to MetaFilter-Related at 10:13 AM (10 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite

It was koeselitz, I'm sure.
posted by unSane at 10:24 AM on December 14, 2010


I think this is it, no?
posted by unSane at 10:26 AM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]


There's also this, also by koeselitz.
posted by zamboni at 10:28 AM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]


No, it wasn't either one of those. If it helps any, I seem to recall that it was response to someone else and it sort of had an almost-arrogant tone of "I'm an expert on this, I'm well informed and this is important to me, and you and the point of view you espouse is just *wrong*, and the ancient Greeks who were right, and whom I understand much better than you, would agree with me", which was sort of off-puting (and perhaps why I didn't favorite it), but I seem to recall that the comment also backed up its point of view with some hard information and (possibly) a link or two.

Those comments you've found so far do make me think it might have been koeselitz or someone in a conversation with him.
posted by Reverend John at 10:45 AM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]


koeselitz has 7 other comments in the thread zamboni linked to, starting here, where he talks about a book called Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra.
posted by Kattullus at 10:51 AM on December 14, 2010 [2 favorites]


If it's greek, math, prolific and almost-arrogant, it could have been this one, but I can't make out the signature. He sure sounds insufferably pedantic, though.
posted by DU at 11:01 AM on December 14, 2010 [1 favorite]


Yes! Thats it Kattullus! Thank God.

Ok, so I was misremembering the attitude. Sorry koeselitz. And thank you guys for helping me find it (even putting it in front of me ... I thought I searched through his other comments in that thread, and his history too... but I've been bouncing around a lot, I don't know).
posted by Reverend John at 11:02 AM on December 14, 2010


Heh, oh he's sufferable, even enjoyable. You came up in my mind as a possible source, but somehow I thought "no... it was a longer username than DU".

Also, it was that link that made it stick in my mind, I remember thinking "I should check that out someday... if I ever feel smart enough". And then since I didn't favorite it (still don't know why) some other part of my mind started going "Hey, wasn't there something we were kinda interested in... what the hell was that?".
posted by Reverend John at 11:09 AM on December 14, 2010


Reverend John: “Ok, so I was misremembering the attitude. Sorry koeselitz.”

No, honestly, it doesn't bother me. In fact, it pleases me that you were interested in my comment. Heh. No apology necessary.
posted by koeselitz at 11:40 AM on December 14, 2010


MetaFilter: I'm an expert on this, I'm well informed and this is important to me, and you and the point of view you espouse is just *wrong*
posted by griphus at 1:09 PM on December 14, 2010 [6 favorites]


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