Talk:G. Spencer-Brown

message: Why isn't this at George Spencer-Brown?  Or is he more commonly known as "G"?  RickK 22:56, 18 May 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: His surname is Spencer-Brown and his personal name is George.  You cite cases of people who go by a second personal name.  Is there a reliable source that says that he commonly goes by the personal name "G."?  If not, then move to George Spencer-Brown Zarboublian (talk) 05:22, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: G. or George

message: He also wrote poems (23 Degrees of Paradise) and a (to my mind rather annoying) half-poem/half-prose piece about his views on the sexes called Only two can play at this game, both under the name James Keys. And there is also a document floating around (possibly never formally published? I'm not sure) in which several people (some of them, I believe, connected to Co-Evolution Quarterly, now Whole Earth Review) spent a few days with him in a Q&A about some of his ideas that sit weirdly at the boundaries between math and mysticism. I've seen it, but I don't have a copy any more. I believe that somewhere in there, though, is one lovely quote: "A mystic is not someone to whom everything is mysterious; a mystic is someone to whom everything is perfectly clear." Anyway, I'm not particularly interested in putting in time on this one, but this may provide some useful leads for those who are. 
In any event, I think Laws of Form has enough of a cult status to merit an article on him even if he is a bit of a crackpot. -- Jmabel | Talk 05:51, 16 April 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  James Keys 

message: Niklas Luhmann was a vastly prestigious Professor of Sociology in Germany - died 1998 - and has dozens of books in prints and about 20 translated into English - he cites GSB very frequently and respectfully, and regarded GSB's work as foundational in his own. This was my stimulus for looking up Spencer Bown, and I think it is vital that Wikipedia has a listing, indeed probably a more detailed listing than this one. 
But the section: "...he studied at Trinity College Cambridge, earning Honours in Philosophy (1950) and Psychology (1951), and where he met Bertrand Russell. From 1952 to 1958, he taught philosophy at Christ Church College, Oxford, earning M.A. degrees in 1954 from both Oxford and Cambridge" must be a bit confused. 
The MA is the only undergraduate degree from Oxford and Cambridge, but (I think this is correct) graduates initially receive a BA, which can then be automatically upgraded to MA after 3 years on payment of a small fee. The following is a guess - and I don't know where to check the facts. Probably GSB received an BA from Cambridge in 1951 (the 'tripos' degree having two parts, after 2 years and after 3 years, each awarded a separate title - in this case the Philosophy and Psychology names). This BA Cantab may have been automatically upgraded to MA after 3 years - in 1954. The Oxford MA of the same year was probably honorary (there was no time to complete a further course of study) - I would guess - since Oxford staff are/ were awarded an Oxford MA for the rather obscure reason that other universities degrees are not recognized for certain internal procedural purposes (membership of some committees, voting in certain elections etc). Therefore, the Oxford MA was probably not an extra degree in its own right, but just a matter of formality.
Comment: It is unusual, but GSB did receive 2 degrees, one from Cambridge and the other from Oxford. Having obtained his Phil-Psych degree from Cambridge, he found he enjoyed the university life and wanted to prolong it as much as he could. One way of doing this was a PGCE which he took. Oxford was the only place at the time he could explore his then interest in Psychical Research, hence his enrollment on a second degree course. He later joined the faculty there, as per the biog info. Leon Conrad - London, UK - --5.80.66.95 (talk) 12:15, 13 August 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: Oxford MA will have been by incorporation.  But "earning" is too strong, "taking" is better. Zarboublian (talk) 05:16, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Niklas Luhmann

message: Is  a reliable source for his life?  It appears to be a website run by someone else. Zarboublian (talk) 05:28, 24 September 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: He´s still alive. He could edit (e.g. by a friend) this article. --(brookelynn77@ymail.com)--91.4.206.119 (talk) 16:53, 2 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Life 

message: This Wikipedia article on GSB should be cross-linked to the Wikipedia article on his father, John Brown (Contract Bridge expert and author):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(bridge)
Leon Conrad - London, UK
--5.80.65.5 (talk) 09:30, 4 October 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Family Links 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified one external link on G. Spencer-Brown. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20060821204917/http://lawsofform.org/aum/session1.html to http://www.lawsofform.org/aum/session1.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 10:33, 9 October 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 5 external links on G. Spencer-Brown. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20040611164702/http://www.lawsofform.org/gsb/vita.html to http://www.lawsofform.org/gsb/vita.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20040611164702/http://www.lawsofform.org/gsb/vita.html to http://www.lawsofform.org/gsb/vita.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20051215152632/http://www.lawsofform.org/gsb/nature.html to http://www.lawsofform.org/gsb/nature.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070629215610/http://forum.troonite.co.uk/gsb/index.html to http://forum.troonite.co.uk/gsb/index.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20040611164702/http://www.lawsofform.org/gsb/vita.html to http://www.lawsofform.org/gsb/vita.html
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 02:12, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified