From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Mon Sep 04 2000 - 00:55:41 MDT
On Sunday, September 03, 2000 6:37 PM J. R. Molloy jr@shasta.com wrote:
> > ...People who work with math call
> > themselves mathematicians; people who work with geology call themselves
> > geologists; people who work with machines call themselves mechanics;
people
> > who work in libraries call themselves librarians; people who work with
wood
> > call themselves carpenters; ...
>
> Einstein worked with math, but he called himself a theoretical physicist.
Actually, he used mainly physical problems and speculations about such to
guide the math and, from what I've read, he was a poor mathematician.
> Darwin worked with geology, but he was called an evolutionist.
Darwin was actually what we would call a naturalist. He was deeply
influenced by the geologist Lyell, whose notion of gradualism -- viz., the
same processes at work now were working in the past to create all the
geological formations we see today -- had an impact of Darwin's theory of
evolution.
> The Wright brothers worked with machines,
They worked on bicycles.
> but they were called inventors of the
> airplane.
I do think of the airplane as an invention and most people at the time of
the brothers Wright would probably have agreed.
> Karl Marx worked in a library, but he didn't call himself a librarian (he
> started a cult).
I won't argue with this, though I don't want to diss Marx completely. His
view of dialectics is quite interesting, though he did not, sadly, apply it
to his own philosophy. But if he had logged on to Priceline.com or heard
William Shatner singing about it, who knows what he might have applied the
money he would have saved to.
Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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