Reading one of my math books this evening (not one of my textbooks) called “The Philosophy of Set Theory” by Mary Tiles, I noticed in the bibliography a book “Foundations of Mathematics” by Hatcher, W. S. and I wondered if it was the William Hatcher who is a logician and a Baha’i. As it turns out, it is the very same. Investigating this led me to his wikipedia page and then to an online pdf that outlines his logic-based proof of the existence of a unique, singular, causal God (not any particular religion’s description of God). It’s an interesting read. Given that I’m studying logic, set theory and axiomatic systems right now, it was cool to see those applied to this particular question. I can’t point any holes in the argument and the argument is short, and designed to empirically match scientific understanding about the universe.
Tag Archives: logic
Sabbatical Day 13 – Apple Watch Series 4
Well, yesterday Apple announced the new Series 4 watch. Two big disappointments for me: no ceramic version, and Canada won’t get the EKG feature (at least not in any specified time). Darn it! I was really hoping to get a new one, but I really don’t see the point of doing so without those two things. I have the Series 2 ceramic Apple Watch, and I love it. So I’ll wait some more and maybe start looking for another vendor for my next fashion/fitness/tech accessory.
Today I cycled to school again. I love the exercise – and while I’m in better shape than I used to be, I’m still not in “good” shape for cycling. It’s an 8.5km ride each way and it takes me about 30 minutes. Lots of hills. There’s a segment on city streets. This morning I left at the same time as Verity so that we could travel together for that segment. Then there’s a bunch of walking/cycle paths along the Thames river valley. It’s a lovely start to the morning. The only thing is that I get _really_ sweaty!! After I cycled home, I jumped in the pool – without looking at the temperature – and it was freezing!!! I could only do 6 lengths before I had to get out because of the cold. I’m not sure of the temperature, but I’m guessing it was somewhere between 15 C and 18 C. Not dangerous, but super uncomfortable!
One of my in-progress projects is to help Haifa with her driving and preparing for her road test. Today we went out for about half an hour to practice parallel parking and three point turns. She made great progress, but I started getting super tired. I think I ate something that didn’t agree with me and so we ended a bit sooner than I expected. Then I took a 4 hour nap! I’m likely to be up late tonight. Anyway, I suspect that my dad’s garlic allergy is affecting me. I have to try avoiding garlic to see if that is the case.
Tonight I’m doing my first official homework assignment for school. It’s a sheet of six questions adapted from the textbook for Math 2155. Here are a couple example questions:
Rewrite the following English statements as logical statements. (a) John and Bill are both telling the truth or neither of them is.
Make truth tables for the following formulas: (a) ¬[P∧(Q∨¬P)]
Honestly, it feels a bit like busy-work for me. My computer science degree covered all this stuff in depth, and even worse, I got into this stuff as a kid somewhere around grade 7 or 8 so I’ve been doing logic and truth tables like, forever! Anyway, I’ll get it done quickly and hopefully I won’t make any stupid errors. That’s my most common problem with math. I’ll let all y’all know when I get my grades. Here’s hoping for 100% on my first assignment… Incidentally, Verity is struggling with the same problem with her math in grade 9 – it’s super easy, boring review. I feel for her.