Little Progress

It has been quite a while, maybe a whole year since my last post. I have made no progress in the areas I have mentioned in my first post.

I think my position on 'foundations' somewhat changed: In many areas, the structures and the mathematics comes first, and later we try to construct axioms so that the theorems we need stay true. This of course is only about the relationship of most mathematics with set theory and mathematical logic. These subjects are worthwhile pursuing for many other reasons.

I have developed an interest in applied mathematics of all kinds, especially in the area of evolutionary dynamics, due to my class with Prof. Martin Nowak.

Since the purpose of this blog is not to report on the latest development of the week but to keep a diary of my long-retarded development in understanding mathematics, I won't be posting papers and such unless they directly relate to the above-mentioned goal.

De Rerum Natura

This blog is hereby created at the date available around this post, inspired by my roommate and my friend Jim, to record the results of a project I hereby embark upon: To study the nature of things.

Nowadays many people write blogs to voice their opinions. For the time being, my aim is more modest: I will post my naive impressions about the things I study, with the hope that along the process I will be forced to clarify my thoughts, and I will be able to look back upon and trace the genealogy of their developments.

Thus, the posts are not opinions, but merely thoughts, to which I have no particular attachment to and are subject to elaboration, rejection, silence, and ridicule.

I am currently an undergraduate student, supposedly studying mathematics, but I have had neither the discipline, nor the motivation necessary to reach an understanding of it. The blog, (again inspired by Jim) will hopefully help remedy the situation.

Although to reach an understanding of the nature of things one must not only study many a subject, but be an active participant of life fully - one still has to start somewhere, and I decided to start by studying the following two texts:

Calculus by Michael Spivak
The Theory of Sets by Nicolas Bourbaki

of which the first is a theory of change, and the second a widely used foundation of mathematics. More on these later.

All readers are welcome to join me on this journey, and help me to accomplish a personal renaissance.