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Meaningness's profile
David Chapman
David Chapman
David Chapman
@Meaningness

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David Chapman

@Meaningness

Better ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—around problems of meaning and meaninglessness; self and society; ethics, purpose, and value.

meaningness.com/about-my-sites
Joined September 2010

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    1. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness Feb 12
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      🧵 Mathematicians and scientists have vague folk theories of what math and science are that both are blurred ancestral memories of pre-WWII logical positivism. These theories are totally wrong, but do little *direct* harm because they are mainly ignored in practice.

      9 replies 13 retweets 149 likes
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    2. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness Feb 12
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      Comfortable folk theories of technical work do harm by filling the space where a better understanding could go, making its absence invisible. “Yes of course we know how to do science! We are scientists!” But clearly you didn’t, because you go so much of it wrong.

      2 replies 3 retweets 36 likes
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    3. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness Feb 12
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      Some sciences are upgrading their understanding, which I am optimistic will lead to better science.https://meaningness.com/metablog/upgrade-your-cargo-cult …

      2 replies 2 retweets 30 likes
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    4. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness Feb 12
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      Does the folk theory of mathematics also cause trouble? Here I am less confident, because math rarely has replication crises. However, this paper suggests to me that more and better math might get done if it were upgraded: https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/hung.bui/ideal.pdf …pic.twitter.com/XSbDWXhDpz

      4 replies 3 retweets 33 likes
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      David Chapman‏ @Meaningness Feb 12
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      "Of course we know how to do mathematics! We are mathematicians!" But there's good evidence you don't, and so you can't teach it clearly, and you can't reflect on whether you are doing it well or badly. https://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/hung.bui/ideal.pdf …pic.twitter.com/YsL16YdGVe

      9:53 AM - 12 Feb 2020
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      9 replies 4 retweets 41 likes
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        2. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness Feb 12
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          A better understanding of what math is and how we do it might improve the rate at which mathematical understanding increases, its dissemination to other fields, and its relevance and usefulness.pic.twitter.com/POO3njXgfj

          3 replies 1 retweet 22 likes
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        3. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness Feb 12
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          OK, maybe mathematics DOES have a broad replicability problem! Seemingly strong evidence and arguments from @XenaProject, whose post I tweeted yesterday. Great slides! (h/t @vonbladet, @aelkus) (“Seemingly”: I’m not qualified to have an opinion here) http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/avigad/meetings/fomm2020/slides/fomm_buzzard.pdf …pic.twitter.com/UDQLsKoph3

          8 replies 3 retweets 16 likes
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        4. End of conversation
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        2. Sarah Constantin‏ @s_r_constantin Feb 13
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          Replying to @Meaningness

          yeah, I suspect that for many students who find they're "no good at" a subject (even when they're good at other similarly difficult subjects), it's because they can't catch on to the pattern of which things that discipline includes in its models and which are "irrelevant details"

          2 replies 3 retweets 15 likes
        3. Lucy Keer‏ @drossbucket Mar 1
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          Replying to @s_r_constantin @Meaningness

          My copy of that Ideal Mathematician essay has this Wittgenstein story at the start. "If a child does not respond to the suggestive gesture, it is separated from the others and treated as a lunatic."pic.twitter.com/lFMVTXqAux

          1 reply 0 retweets 5 likes
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        2. The Xena Project‏ @XenaProject Feb 12
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          Replying to @Meaningness

          Oh this "ideal mathematician" link is wonderful! Thanks! This is pretty much the "proper mathematician" that I've been talking about for the past year or so.

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness Feb 12
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          Replying to @XenaProject

          Glad you like it! Just remembered I got it from @drossbucket; I’ll credit her publicly now

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        2. St. Rev  ☯️ 🏴 😻‏ @St_Rev Feb 12
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          Replying to @Meaningness

          This essay is satirical. Many mathematicians can give quite reasonable discussions of the ambiguity of the term 'exist', most others just don't find the issue worth considering one way or another. Platonists/intuitionists/etc. are considered somewhat cranky.

          2 replies 0 retweets 4 likes
        3. St. Rev  ☯️ 🏴 😻‏ @St_Rev Feb 12
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          Replying to @St_Rev @Meaningness

          I think in physics the analogous stance is called 'shut up and calculate'. Worry about that stuff (not challenge it, but take a stance at all) is for when you're old and your research days are mostly over.

          2 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        1. Szymon Majewski‏ @brewingsense Mar 1
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          Replying to @Meaningness

          I think one can combine two criteria given by the ideal mathematician, to get another interesting one: "A proof is something that convinces an expert, that a logical proof for the statement could be written".

          0 replies 0 retweets 1 like
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        1. zbingledack‏ @zbingledack Feb 12
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          Replying to @Meaningness

          A proof to one person is obvious and to another insufficient to get them to see. All correct theorems are tautological, so a proof can only ever be an aid to help people see the tautological nature of it, and the level of help needed necessarily varies by person.

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