The #Math that has always worked for science is normal Indian math. But #India today continues to teach superstition-infused European math to millions of students without scrutiny.
A #thread on the urgent need for #decolonizing Indian education, based on #CKRaju's writings.
A #thread on the urgent need for #decolonizing Indian education, based on #CKRaju's writings.
Normal Indian math accepts empirical proofs. For example '1 apple + 1 apple = 2 apples' is 'empirical' because you can see it.
Empirical (adjective)= verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic
Empirical (adjective)= verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic
But formal european math accepts only axiomatic reasoning (reasoning without facts). Worse, it prohibits empirical proofs.
Axiom (noun)- a proposition which is regarded as self-evidently true.
Axiom (noun)- a proposition which is regarded as self-evidently true.
Why did europeans prohibit empirical proofs? Apparently they believed empirical proofs are fallible. For example, you may mistake a rope for a snake.
Based on this logic, all Indian math was declared inferior to Greek math.
Based on this logic, all Indian math was declared inferior to Greek math.
But all sciences accept empirical proof too! Does that make science inferior? Will prohibition of empirical proofs make science superior? No!
Then why does european math prohibit empirical proof?
Then why does european math prohibit empirical proof?
To understand this, we must first know the cultural influence of the #Church on European math.
Higher education in #Europe was essentially controlled by the church and was designed to produce insular missionaries who would not themselves get converted!
Higher education in #Europe was essentially controlled by the church and was designed to produce insular missionaries who would not themselves get converted!
During the Crusades, the church was exposed to the Islamic 'aql-i-kalam' and was forced to create its own theology of reason to 'persuade' (😁) the #Muslims.
For this, the Church declared 'proof' as the ultimate objective of math.
For this, the Church declared 'proof' as the ultimate objective of math.
But the Church was unable to accept 'facts' because 'facts' were inimical to core church dogmas (such as Virgin birth).
It is this rejection of facts that is the basis of formal math’s prohibition of empirical proofs even to this today.
It is this rejection of facts that is the basis of formal math’s prohibition of empirical proofs even to this today.
To protect its dogmas, the Church then invented a peculiar method of reasoning from metaphysical axioms.
An eg is the Aquinas theorem which states that more than one angel can fit on a pin's head! Do you know how Aquinas proved this? He postulated that Angels occupy no spaces!
An eg is the Aquinas theorem which states that more than one angel can fit on a pin's head! Do you know how Aquinas proved this? He postulated that Angels occupy no spaces!
Indian math focused on calculation which is the source of practical value in everything- from shopping for groceries to determining rocket trajectories, or finance and Artificial intelligence.
Most school math today (arithmetic, algebra, “trigonometry", calculus, probability and statistics) was imported by Europe, from India, for its practical value, between the 10th and 16th c. CE.
But due to cultural dissonance, Europeans failed to fully understand Indian math.
Simultaneously, the Church added layers of religious metaphysics to imported Indian math and changed it to formal European math.
Simultaneously, the Church added layers of religious metaphysics to imported Indian math and changed it to formal European math.
But these metaphysical layers added no practical value to Indian math but returned to India through colonial education as “superior” math.
Rejection of empirical proof makes formal european math hard. For eg, Bertrand Russell and Alfred Whitehead needed over 300 pages of axiomatic proofs to prove 1 + 1 = 2!
How many Indian mathematicians can replicate, test and critically analyze it?
How many Indian mathematicians can replicate, test and critically analyze it?
Acceptance of empirical proof OTOH, makes Indian math easy and better (like science).
But it is hard to communicate this simple thesis in India because colonial education has made people illiterate in math and science.
But it is hard to communicate this simple thesis in India because colonial education has made people illiterate in math and science.
Colonial education has made the minds of the colonised insular and has programmed generations of Indians to blindly reject any critique of the master race.
Despite independence, Indian educators brought up within the colonial system never bothered to cross-check the European claim of “superior” math.
Worse, they refuse to do this even today!
Worse, they refuse to do this even today!
Unlike European math, Indian math accepted inexactitude in calculation.
The Western superstition that math is exact arose from a related Western religious superstition that math is eternal truth. Plato had declared that mathematics (from mathesis) arouses the eternal soul.
The Western superstition that math is exact arose from a related Western religious superstition that math is eternal truth. Plato had declared that mathematics (from mathesis) arouses the eternal soul.
This belief persisted as a post-Crusade church superstition that “God rules the world with eternal laws of nature”, written in “the language of eternal truth: mathematics”.
The Western attempt to sum Indian infinite series in exactitudes led to a fantasy world of metaphysics (of infinity, formal “real” numbers etc) like how Aquinas’ developed his metaphysics of angels.
This layer of metaphysics added to it by the West is redundant.
But it benefits the West politically as it brainwashes millions of non-European students into accepting the superiority of european math and inferiority of #indigenous knowledge.
But it benefits the West politically as it brainwashes millions of non-European students into accepting the superiority of european math and inferiority of #indigenous knowledge.
India urgently needs to establish a commission for decolonization of Indian education.
Subject all colonial knowledge to strict scrutiny and accept only those systems (both foreign and indigenous) that pass this scrutiny.
Subject all colonial knowledge to strict scrutiny and accept only those systems (both foreign and indigenous) that pass this scrutiny.
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