Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Monday, June 26, 2017
"MATHEMATICS"
"There is another key problem explicitly identified in the heading of the 'Rhind Papyrus,' an educational document: the necessity for a correct method..., to be used in directing human intelligence in its effort to understand reality. The method envisaged in obviously the science of mathematics. For the Egyptian conception of mathematics required that the abstract sciences, for which correct method is prerequisite , be complemented by the applied and technical sciences.
"Quite appropriately, so far in history, mathematics has been the most widely used science. What the ancient Egyptians clearly wanted was to inform the entire study of natural phenomena with mathematical reasoning, thus ensuring that mathematical method, built on exactitude and rigor, governed the conception of spiritual and material life. That is what they meant by 'knowing all mysteries, all secrets' through the methodical study of every aspect of nature, all of nature....
"The ancient Egyptians would have found nothing at all shocking in the vision of mathematics as the almighty science : 'All things are numbers;' 'Numbers rule the world.' This was exactly how they conceived of numbers, they who were the first to advocate mathematics as the scientific ideal. This Egyptian mathematical ideal is the general ideal of science. It has remained so without interruption since it was first articulated in the Nile valley....
"The power of numbers: a tool for understanding nature in its real and profound constitution--such was the ancient Egyptian vision."
P.434-435, "Mathematics," AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY: THE PHARAONIC PERIOD 2780-330 BC, by Dr. Theophile Obenga (2004)