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Any careful analysis Post Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 7:24:41 +0000
For example, when the two words " blue " and " color " appear on the printed page, the word " blue " is recognized as a specific term under the general term " color." This is done without any complete articulation, or any clear representation of the visual experiences to which the words refer or even of the auditory experience arising from the utterance of the word. Any careful analysis of the reading process shows that we tend to keep alive more or less the articulation which is connected with the word ; but this articulation, as we shall note more fully in a later chapter, gradually grows weaker and, in some cases, gives place entirely to other and more fundamental forms of physiological activity.
Autor of the post: Undefined
How far we Post Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 7:13:04 +0000
The fact is that we have in written symbols a new stage of abstraction which can be used in complex thought-processes in almost complete independence of sensory experiences. From written words turn to the signs used in mathemat- ical equations. How far we are from direct sensory experi- ence in the use of the symbol of equality or the symbol of addition ! We can talk about adding things, using the word " addition " as the instrument for expression, and we shall recognize that we have reached a high stage of ab- straction ; but when we write the symbol for addition and, without any complete articulation or description, instantly recognize the fact that this symbol means the assembling into a single quantity of all the quantities that are on both sides of it, then we have isolated for purposes of thought, and dealt abstractly with, a process of mathematical manip- ulation.
Autor of the post: Undefined
Little by little he can Post Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 6:53:30 +0000
The purely abstract use of addition is, of course, possible only after one has seen the process actually carried out with a number of concrete experiences. Thus the child must add seven splints to five splints or he must add five blocks to seven blocks before he will understand what is meant by the process of addition. Little by little he can be brought to the point where he does not need to think of the actual piling together of objects in order to understand what is meant by addition.
Autor of the post: Undefined
We get as far away Post Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 6:42:44 +0000
Ultimately the child can think of the process of addition and its laws quite apart from any concrete examples, as when a trained adult recognizes without detailed thought that addition increases while subtraction diminishes. The science of algebra can be defined in terms of the foregoing discussion as a science which examines math- ematical operations in a purely abstract way. We get as far away as we can from any real cases, and we study in the most abstract form how any case could be treated if we wanted to treat it from the point of view of the adding process, or the dividing process, or the subtracting process, etc.
Autor of the post: Undefined
Whenever we come upon Post Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 6:23:20 +0000
We study the different combinations of multiplication, permutation, etc., which are feasible, with all quantities of any kind whatsoever. Whenever we come upon a symbol of mathematical operation we have the real subject matter of this science before us.
Autor of the post: Undefined
For the purposes Post Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 6:11:06 +0000
It is not enough, however, to have mere symbols of operation. There must be in every algebraic formula some- thing which stands for, and serves as a substitute for, the things which are to be added or otherwise manipulated. For the purposes of a general science which is studying the process of manipulation, it is desirable that the quantities which are to be handled should, as far as possible, leave behind all of their particular characteristics.
Autor of the post: Undefined
We consequently set down Post Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 5:56:36 +0000
We do not want to know what kind of things are to be added. We merely want to know what will happen to anything if it is added to something else. We consequently set down in our algebraic formulas the most abstract symbols of quan- tity which we can find, taking great pains that the symbols which we use shall have as little concrete significance as possible.
Autor of the post: Undefined
We cannot use numbers, because Post Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 5:41:02 +0000
We have, as a matter of fact, found it advantageous to use for this purpose the letters of the alphabet. The letters taken singly have no meaning whatsoever, and con- sequently they serve admirably the purpose in hand. We cannot use numbers, because numbers are expressions of a definite kind of fact, namely, exact position in the number series.
Autor of the post: Undefined
On the other hand, if Post Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 5:24:29 +0000
It would be fatal to our study of the addition process, as such, if we used particular numbers. To be sure, numbers represent a high stage of abstraction, but they are nevertheless particular quantities in the sense that a given number means a perfectly definite relationship. On the other hand, if we use the letter a instead of a number, we have freed ourselves from any particular experiences, even the experience of a particular relation.
Autor of the post: Undefined
Here we should have our Post Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2008 5:10:34 +0000
It would not do to use a symbol which had even so much concrete sig- nificance as a word. Suppose, for example, that one should say in algebra that books added to books equal a library. Here we should have our attention concentrated upon books, and we could not study the addition process apart from the concrete objects which are to be added.
Autor of the post: Undefined
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