From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sun Nov 09 2003 - 15:23:09 GMT
Hi Bo,
In the book section of today's NY Times under Paperback Non-Fiction is
a review of a book entitled "Lost discoveries: the Non-Western Roots of
Science" by Dick Teresi, author of "The God Particle."
In the review there are a number of observations made by Teresi that
tend to dispute Jaynes' theory. Example: "The Babylonians developed the
Pythagorean theorem at least 1,500 years before Pythagoras was born."
Also, "The Egyptians mastered fractions, and Babylonian mathematics
created a B.C version of the calculator, with its tables of
reciprocals, squares, cubes, square roots and cube roots."
I commend the review to you and others who are interested in discussing
the emergence of the intellectual level. I think it sheds some new
light on the question. At the very least, it suggests that our
knowledge of those ancient times is limited and largely speculative.
Best regards,
Platt
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