From: maufd@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr J S Graley)
Newsgroups: alt.flame
Subject: Re: Girls & alt.flame
Date: 26 Jan 1993 18:05:20 -0000
Organization: Computing Services, University of Warwick, UK
Distribution: alt
NNTP-Posting-Host: lily.csv.warwick.ac.uk

In article <CANNAM.93Jan26115608@borodin.sc.ZIB-Berlin.de> Cannam@sc.ZIB-Berlin.de (Chris Cannam) writes:
|
|In article <1k24p6INNoer@clover.csv.warwick.ac.uk>
|maufd@csv.warwick.ac.uk (Mr J S Graley) writes:
|
|   I am doing a pure
|   maths degree. Not only have I learned about logic, like you have, but I
|   _actually_ _use_ _it_. Understand? When it comes to the ability to manipulate
|   abstract (but potentially real) concepts in a consistent way, you
|   philosophers just don't have it. My dad did philosophy as a degree, and
|   he advised me to take maths.
|
|My dad did languages, and _he_ advised me to take maths.  Why?
|Because I was better at it than at languages.  So fucking what?

Oh dear. The newbie cuts a paragraph in half, destroying its meaning, then 
puts 'so what' in the gap. This guy isn't just stupid, he's fucking stupid.
If you wanna know 'what', read on...

|   Why? Because Philosophy is just a big boring
|   history lesson. You wanna be a philosopher when you grow up? Firstly, DROP
|   PHILOSOPHY. Learn about the world, about life, about how to think, and you
|   may stand a chance. But so few people become sucessful philosophers, a
|   degree in it is pretty much guaranteed to be a waste of time.
|
|The connection between a pure maths degree and `the world and life' is
|also extremely tenuous.

Your point would be relevent if I had claimed there is a connection between
doing a maths degree and learning about 'the world and life'. I did not. They
are independent pursuits. You have made a second irrelevent statement.

|                                 I don't think a philosophy degree has that
|much connection either, but I don't think you're qualified to sound
|off like this.

Pardon me? Are you the new moderator of alt.flame? I suggest you fuck off or
come up with a proper flame. (No doubt he'll try)

|You wanna be a mathematician when you grow up?  So few people become
|successful mathematicians... 

Incorrect. Mathematics is a degree directly related to a large number of 
careers. With a maths degree, you can get jobs in computing, business,
design, and statistical research to name but a few off the top of my head.

Philosophy degrees help you get a job too, since a certain stigma is
attached to having any degree at all. However, the material _actually_
_learned_ in such a degree is basically useless.

|                                    What do _you_ think a `successful
|philosopher' is?  A philosopher with a 9-5 job and steady earnings?

Naah. I mean someone who is able to make a contribution to the current state
of philospohical thinking, thereby putting their knowledge of philosophy to 
good use. The only other use is to teach it, which is a bit of a sick joke
really, if you think about it.

|And what has logic got to do with alt.flame?  What has logic got to do
|with anything?

What has your posting got to do with anything. Why did you post it?

|   Sorry to shatter your dreams, Kathy.
|
|I doubt if you have.

So do I. Kathy never actually reads any of the flames anyone puts her way
because it is too painful for her.

|   |Perhaps you would like me to prove to you that you have no free will.
|   |I can do that too.  Or that you cannot move.  It all can be logically
|   |proven.
|
|Maybe, but such a proof is pretty well meaningless.  (Yes, I know this
|is Kathy I'm replying to here.)  The ability to prove something
|logically is not likely to get you very far anywhere.  Most of the
|things people hold as fundamental truths are logically wrong.  That
|doesn't mean they aren't true.

I could have put it better myself.

~THE GREAT NAME
-- 
    Don't worry,
     Its like in the comic books...
      ITS NOT REAL!