> Apart from the possibility of other routes or destinations, though, I want
> to simply ask whether it is legitimate or fruitful (or fair) to privilege
> those traditions that look like our own as though they were somehow
> 'superior' to traditions which don't look like ours. It _is_ true that
> you can't do quantum mechanics with ethnomathematics. But you can't weave
> a decent basket with quantum mechanics either.
>
> I wonder which is more useful in my day to day life...
The mathematics most critical to my own day to day life is geometric optics;
I wear glasses. Many cultures have made eyewear in other ways, and no other
has worked. My life would be misery without it.
Maybe our own culture could need glasses less: that's a different point.
Many cultures have recognized a need for something like them, and met it
poorly.
Where there is a common goal across cultures (in this case, clear sight of
detail), it is legitimate, fruitful and fair to compare success in achieving
it.
Tim
____________________________________________________________
| Tim Poston Chief Scientist
| Centre for Information-enhanced Medicine
| National University of Singapore
| www.ciemed.nus.edu.sg
|___________________________________________________________
Nothing is important, but its importance is easily forgotten.