One of the most profound statements from Carlyle is: “The tragedy of life is not so much what men suffer, but rather what they miss. We are mathematics illiterates (its literacy is not tax or interest rate calculations), music illiterates, art illiterates, philosophy illiterates and very often science illiterates. We miss all these feasts and care so little about missing so much that life has to offer. Mathematics is considered the greatest invention after music and in its beauty rivals the latter for at least those who can appreciate it. Mathematics can be an exciting adventure. No tonic is better than it for the brain. What an excitement to follow stories of Pythagoreans who concealed knowledge of irrational numbers, symbolism of numbers, numerology and other allied occult sciences invoking mathematics and used and abused by Pirs in Kashmir and elsewhere, significance of some universal constants like Plank’s constant, young Galois’s who was among the founders of group theory and died just at 20, careless Fermat keeping mathematicians busy for centuries for want of margin in which to write proof of his theorem, Cantor’s mind boggling science of infinity in which we have countable and uncountable infinities, paradoxes of set theory and Zeno etc. I wish all parents vow to teach their children if not themselves as well love of mathematics. It is much more thrilling than detective stories. For those who value precision, brevity and the power of abstractions mathematics literacy is required. Such philosophical questions that may interest anyone who cares to think are: • Why is 2+2 =4 but it can’t be extrapolated to imply 2 entities/things + 2 other entities/things=4? • Is mathematics a species of analytic statements that true by definition only? Why mathematics can say nothing about the world if it is to be eternally true? (I recall Einstein’s statement that mathematics is true only so far as it doesn’t tell anything about the world. This need not be seen as a limitation of it. By the way what cognitive content is in art or music?) • What are the foundations of mathematics? How come mind discover mathematical truths or are these amongst innate ideas? Is mathematics reducible to logic? • Why universe is mathematically structured? And why are numbers considered divine or of mystical import in most cultures? • Does Gödel’s theorem disprove all those who claim to present religion or any ideological system as complete and internally consistent and justified from within or totalistic system? Incidentally I recall that when Zakir Naik was asked in Kashmir about the questions Godel’s theorem raises regarding his claim to present Islam as complete, rationally consistent system or way of life. He had no answer. I wondered whether a missionary (dayee) could afford to miss this key revolutionary theorem that vetoes all fundamentalism, both scientific or theological. Dirac was moved by the sheer beauty and symmetry of mathematical equations to posit some revolutionary conceptions like positrons. Russell declared that he found eternal truth only in mathematical equations. Deciphering mathematical structure of the universe is what Stephen Hawking calls finding the Mind of God. Plato said God ever geometrizes and disallowed anyone ignorant of mathematics to enter his academy. I invite all the readers to taste the rasa of mathematics, to appreciate why it is the queen of sciences, to understand why God chose to write the scripture of the cosmos in the language of mathematics, to see the exemplification of mathematical principles in all forms – both inorganic (at atomic or molecular level) and organic – and why and how it is a divine science that can open up for us another world of meaning and beauty of which saints and prophets speak. Mathematics is a universal language and if aliens were to communicate with us they will have to do it through mathematics. I would invite readers to attempt reading 3 volumes of The World of Mathematics. Like me who is not a mathematician but nevertheless lover of mathematics familiar with some of its soul ravishing sinews and curls , most readers can’t understand every chapter but one can capture the magic, the beauty and the sublimity of adventure called Mathematics. Where even most of advanced students of mathematics can’t answer the question what is mathematics or give its elementary definition not to speak of deliberating on its connection to logic or mysticism and people fear it as khosk (dry) we need huge investment for better mathematics literacy. In this recent establishment of Institute of Mathematical Sciences is a great news for lovers of mathematics and allied sciences. IMS will help to connect us to heritage of AlKhawazimi and Omer Khayyam, of the unknown inventor of zero, or Hindu-Arabic numeral system. One day Kashmir will be remembered by IMS. And both A. G. Malik and M. A Lone who worked hard to make it a reality will have life time consolation and sense of pride. I hope this institute helps to attract local talent to explore mathematics and unleash enormous creative power of Kashmiri mind. I hope it will conduct something like INSPIRE programme to attract the best new talent after matriculation to study of mathematics. I hope it will start extension lectures and short term courses for interested people. I hope IMS makes the difference by helping popularize mathematics the way Iqbal institute popularized Iqbal for all and sundry. IMS, developed outside the shadow of university culture, means students have other spaces to groom themselves. (I have been wondering why college professors are not welcome to university or research not outsourced to select college teachers in certain disciplines, who could be, at least in some cases I know, more qualified to teach there). For knowledge economy you don’t need much electricity or any other raw material. Only the will to know and excel. If I were a leader I would devote my whole energy in developing such institutions as would ensure our long term academic or educational excellence and that is the key to every other thing. Take care of education of society and it takes care of rest of things itself.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 00:02:15 +0000
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