Re: What is understanding?

["JACK L. URETSKY (C)1998; HEP DIVISION, ARGONNE NATIONAL LAB ARGONNE, IL 60439" <JLU@HEP.ANL.GOV>]

Hi Ludwik-
        I thought I opted out of this discussion, and I'm
not sure that you have carefully considered my comment.
Definitions are arbitrary.  You have adopted a particular
definition of the word "understanding".  That is your privilege,
guaranteed by the First Amendment.
        I don't find your definition useful.  I will not try
to make one.  I think Feynman tried and failed; for the time
being that's good enough for me.
        I do physics by trying to predict experimental results.
That enterprise keeps  me off of street corners and, most of the time,
away from philosophy.
        Thanks for responding, but enough already.
                                                Regards,
                                                        Jack
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Hi Jack:
I will be waiting for what you have to say (see below).
For the time being I will stick to my belief that IN PURE
MATHEMATICS, as opposed to its practical applications,
understanding can be described as "an ability of a human
being to generate syllogistic derivations from already
accepted statements". A mathematical theorem must be
proven to be accepted; an agreement with some real data
is not a convincing argument in pure math.

Mathematicians do other things, such as eating, playing
musical instruments, learning physics and enjoying situations
in which fruits of their labor are used by practical people.
They are probably still inspired by what happens outside
of their discipline but the basic rule of their game, I was told,
is to logically justify statements (before they become accepted
as the mathematical truth).

But I am not a mathematician and I may be incorrect. Let me
end with a sentence Gary Kashner used today: "I think I have
stated more then I know, so I will shut up."
Ludwik Kowalski
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        "I scored the next great triumph for science myself,
to wit, how the milk gets into the cow.  Both of us
had marveled over that mystery a long time.  We had
followed the cows around for years - that is, in the
daytime - but had never caught them drinking fluid of
that color."
                Mark Twain, Extract from Eve's
                Autobiography