[Wittrs] Regarding Eliminating Very Abstract and Very Applied Fields

From: Osher Doctorow <mdoctorow@xxxxxxxxx>
To: CHORA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:57:22 -0400
Steve Bayne on PHILOS-L ("Even mathematics...,") pointed out that philosophy 
and pure mathematics have inverse or opposite problems regarding the tendency 
to eliminate them by some universities.  He also pointed out that there are 
other good universities in the USA resisting pressure from outside besides 
Princeton U.  Actually, the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study is 
independent of Princeton U., although for a long time it was located on the 
same campus as Princeton U., and now is in a separate location.  I will make a 
separate comment on each of these.

1. "Pure" mathematics is often regarded as too abstract and "non-applied (to 
the real world)," while according to Steve Bayne philosophy (in my rough 
language) is sometimes regarded as being "too applied" and lacking distinct 
concepts or machinery or theory of its own. There seem to be various types of 
researchers and teachers: those who prefer the abstract non-applied, those who 
prefer the abstract applied, those who prefer the non-abstract non-applied, and 
those who prefer the non-abstract applied.  Here "applied" is used for "solving 
problems of human life" or something analogous to that.  I suspect that a 
"practical" solution to sustain departments might be to adopt my own preference 
of abstract and/or non-abstract and/or applied and/or non-applied with 
considerable emphasis on all of the above.  Of course, the previous statement 
is equivalent to "everything", but the idea is to not leave out any of the 
alternatives and considerably emphasise all of them.

2. Generalisations about universities almost always ignore geniuses and 
near-geniuses who are isolated (or alone) in their departments or even two or 
three such people in a particular department.   A student or even researcher 
should not hesitate to attend such universities if he/she can work under such 
geniuses or near-geniuses - except if the mediocre or imitative pressures are 
too high.  In quantitative fields of all types in the USA, there are regional 
tendencies for the most Inventive universities in research based on papers 
since 1991 online in arXiv and Front for the Mathematics ArXiv, the best States 
being Texas, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, Missouri, 
Massachussetts, New Jersey, California.  There are, however, some States with 
several geniuses in a particular quantitative department, including Illinois 
and New York.

Cheers,

Osher Doctorow
      

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[Wittrs] Regarding Eliminating Very Abstract and Very Applied Fields

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