jismith1989:

captainzhang:"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors." Oppenheimer

The fact that he quoted from the Bhagavad Gita when the first atomic bomb was tested is pretty awesome too!

Oh, and I like this quote of Robert Oppenheimer's as well:
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true."

(Esperanto: La optimisto pensas ke tiu ĉi estas la plej bona el ĉiuj mondoj eblaj. La pesimisto ja timas tiel.)

I like that one as well. Thanks. Though, my favorite Physicist is Richard Feynman. Mostly because I really enjoy the manner in which he explains things.

captainzhang:

jismith1989:

captainzhang:"There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry ... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors." Oppenheimer

The fact that he quoted from the Bhagavad Gita when the first atomic bomb was tested is pretty awesome too!

Oh, and I like this quote of Robert Oppenheimer's as well:
"The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true."

(Esperanto: La optimisto pensas ke tiu ĉi estas la plej bona el ĉiuj mondoj eblaj. La pesimisto ja timas tiel.)

I like that one as well. Thanks. Though, my favorite Physicist is Richard Feynman. Mostly because I really enjoy the manner in which he explains things.

Yeah, I missed out on studying maths well enough to understand physics properly, but his books seem really popular (and he was a kick-ass bongo-player, so I believe!). I should give them a read sometime. Maybe the 6 Easy Pieces?

Six Easy Pieces is a good intro to some important topics in Physics. Feynman mentions in the preface that the sort of student he had in mind when developing the lectures was that of a bright high school student that had at least a familiarity with some of the more popular topics in Physics. I don't think the book is difficult as long as you continuously use your imagination and experience to relate the concepts to more concrete terms. Another book of his that I really like is Surely You're joking Mr. Feyman, which is just a collection of stories from his life, basically. He was an amuzing person that loved discovering things. When I watch documentaries of him with lots of interviews with him talking about his father or his experiences I always feel a connection with him.

If you're interested in improving your mathematics, then the best thing you can do is start back at the very beginning and then master everything before moving on and continue in that fashion, because math builds onto itself it is very important to understand something before moving on. Start with Arithmetic, or even number sense, and make sure you understand everything before moving on. Always look for relationships between formulas, equations, definitions. As you master them you will learn faster. But a lot of people think that Mathematicians just look at problems and know the answer quickly, but this isn't reality, math takes a lot of work. Khanacademy is a good supplement to any other resources you might be using, if you decide to learn more mathematics. And remember when you make a mistake return to that problem and try to understand why you made that mistake and how to avoid it in the future, everything improves with time and effort, without exception.

I almost forgot, a book that I highly recommend on problem solving, esp. math problems, is How To Sovle It by George Polya.

No man can worship, love or trust in a probable God. —John Henry Newman

Neniu povas adori, ami aux fidi kredindan Dion.

Comments on the amateurish translation welcome.

captainzhang:Six Easy Pieces is a good intro to some important topics in Physics. Feynman mentions in the preface that the sort of student he had in mind when developing the lectures was that of a bright high school student that had at least a familiarity with some of the more popular topics in Physics...

Thanks for the detailed response. I do a lot of computer programming (though not really low-level stuff, or anything that requires complex maths), so my maths isn't completely useless, and I am actually trying to learn more at the moment too. I'm reading a book called Mathematics for the Nonmathematician by Morris Kline which is quite good (my only issue is that the history sections are pretty outdated and have too triumphalist a view of "Western civilisation", but that's not much of an issue, because I'm not really reading it for the history, and it is an old book anyway). I like the way he links areas of maths to real-world problems, like he discusses how Eratosthenes came to his estimate for the Earth's circumference in the section on trigonometry or he talks about the use of projective geometry in painting, which is quite interesting. I've not reached the chapter about calculus yet though, that's the kind of thing I've really never studied before. It'll probably take me a while, because I'm reading quite slow; I tend to read lots of books at once (or try to!). KhanAcademy is good too, I've used that before. I'll try to have a look at the How To Solve It book as well.

I watched a documentary about Richard Feynman last year. He certainly seems to have led an interesting life! And, of course, made important contributions to science. Good luck with your degree anyway...

kaŝperanto:I came upon Stoicism after reading the book "A Guide to the Good Life", by William B. Irvine. It attempts to be a modern Enchiridion of sorts.

Interesting. Have you read any of Plato's dialogues? If you haven't, I think you should: they're quite accessible and even witty (the famous "Socratic irony" ). I found them really funny, but that could just be my odd sense of humour! Obviously, many of the ideas in them are rubbish on a literal level, but the kind of argumentation and characterization is very interesting (and obviously being literary works, it's arguable to what extent you can take them as evidence of either Plato's or Socrates' actual views on things like, for example, the theory of forms anyway).

As for the "good life", that's a concept that Michael Sandel tries to reintroduce in his popular philosophy lectures too, which are quite interesting, and he likewise tries to discuss problems with the audience in a kind of Socratic way.

jismith1989:

kaŝperanto:I came upon Stoicism after reading the book "A Guide to the Good Life", by William B. Irvine. It attempts to be a modern Enchiridion of sorts.

Interesting. Have you read any of Plato's dialogues? If you haven't, I think you should: they're quite accessible and even witty (the famous "Socratic irony" ). I found them really funny, but that could just be my odd sense of humour! Obviously, many of the ideas in them are rubbish on a literal level, but the kind of argumentation and characterization is very interesting (and obviously being literary works, it's arguable to what extent you can take them as evidence of either Plato's or Socrates' actual views on things like, for example, the theory of forms anyway).

As for the "good life", that's a concept that Michael Sandel tries to reintroduce in his popular philosophy lectures too, which are quite interesting, and he likewise tries to discuss problems with the audience in a kind of Socratic way.

I don't believe I have read those. I'll have to look into it, though.
In fact it has been only a little over a year since my first proper exposure to philosophy, which was in my required Gen-Ed class in the fall of my senior year of college (engineers do things bass ackwards, I guess). My professor actually taught from the texts/translations themselves (as opposed to those God-awful textbook things). Once we were finished with the ancient philosophers (Socrates/Plato, Aristotle, etc.), I was interested in some of the references to Stoicism, which we hadn't covered, so I looked to the web and found that book.

We also covered more modern stuff, such as Kant and a few others that I cannot remember at the moment. It is funny to see what some of the ancients thought about certain things, like if you can truly achieve eudaimonia if your descendants are killed/enslaved/etc. That's why I liked Irvine's book, since he filters out the greatness from the "nonsense". I particularly like the stories about Stoics, such as this example about responding to insults:

...Cato was pleading a case when an adversary named Lentulus spit in his face. Rather than getting angry or returning the insult, Cato calmly wiped off the spit and said, "I will swear to anyone, Lentulus, that people are wrong to say that you cannot use your mouth!"

There is another good one about Socrates, upon having his ears boxed for no reason, made a joke about how annoying it is that you never know whether or not to wear a helmet when going out in public.

Behold, my attempts at translation. I figured I'd post these here first to get some feedback before making the esperanto thread. Any suggestions are welcome.

-Epictetus-

"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will."
"Estas nur unu vojo al feliĉeco, kaj tio estas ĉesi zorgado pri aferojn, ku estas ekster la potenco de nia volo."

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants."
"Riĉeco konsistas ne el havante egajn posedojn, sed el havante malmultajn dezirojn."

"He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at."
"Li kiu ridas pri si mem neniam mankas ridindajn aferojn."

"Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now."
"Prizorgu ĉi momenton. Mergu sin en ĝiajn detalojn. Respondu al ĉi persono, ĉi defio, ĉi ago. Forlasu evitadojn. Ĉesu vin ĝeni nenecese. Estas la tempo por vere vivi, loĝi tute en via nuna situacio."

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows"
"Ne eblas por homo lerni tion, kion si jam pensas scii."

-Marcus Aurelius-

"Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one."
"Ne plu malŝparu tempon pri tio, kio bona homo devus esti. Estu unu."

"It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live"
"La homo ne devas timi pri morto, sed pri neniam ekvivi."

"I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others."
"Mi ofte scivolintas kiel estas, ke ĉiu homo amas sin mem pli ol la cetera de la homaro, sed ankoraŭ taksas malpli sian propran opinion de si mem ol la opinio de aliaj."

"Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones."
"Vivu bonan vivon. Se estas dioj kaj ili justas, tiam ne gravas al ili kiom pia estintas vi, sed bonvenigos vin bazita sur la virtoj laŭ kiu vi vivintas. Se estas dioj, sed maljustaj, tiam vi ne devas voli adori ilin. Se ne estas dioj, tiam vi estos for, sed vivintos noblan vivon kiu vivos plu en la memoroj de viaj amatuloj."

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."
"Ĉio ni aŭdis opinias, ne faktas. Ĉio ni vidas perspektivas, ne veras."

jismith1989:Thanks for the detailed response. I do a lot of computer programming (though not really low-level stuff, or anything that requires complex maths), so my maths isn't completely useless, and I am actually trying to learn more at the moment too. I'm reading a book called Mathematics for the Nonmathematician by Morris Kline which is quite good (my only issue is that the history sections are pretty outdated and have too triumphalist a view of "Western civilisation", but that's not much of an issue, because I'm not really reading it for the history, and it is an old book anyway). I like the way he links areas of maths to real-world problems, like he discusses how Eratosthenes came to his estimate for the Earth's circumference in the section on trigonometry or he talks about the use of projective geometry in painting, which is quite interesting. I've not reached the chapter about calculus yet though, that's the kind of thing I've really never studied before. It'll probably take me a whilehttp://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke, because I'm reading quite slow; I tend to read lots of books at once (or try to!). KhanAcademy is good too, I've used that before. I'll try to have a look at the How To Solve It book as well.

I have "Mathematics for Nonmathematics", seems good although I have only skimmed it so far. A decent intro Calculus book that I have is "Calculus Made Easy" by Silvanus Thompson, the edition I have also includes some stuff by Martin Gardner. Some things you probably should have down cold before Calculus are: the understanding and mechanics of Functions, combining functions, limits, logs, exponents, graphing different kinds of equations and inequalities, and trig. functions and identities. Something that will help deepen your understanding of something is learning how to derive it from prior knowledge.

And so this post is not entirely off topic I'll include a new quote,

"All that is necessary to the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing" Edmund Burke

Thank you kasxperanto for recommending the book "A Guide to the Good Life", by William B. Irvine. I am mid-way through and enjoying learning about Stoic philosophy. I am an 'eternal beginner' with Esperanto but I appreciate so much about the language and the interesting people in the Esperanto community.

en: "We adore chaos because we love to produce order." -M.C. Escher
eo: "Ni adoras kaoson ĉar ni amas produki ordon."

en: “Once social change begins, it cannot be reversed. You cannot un-educate the person who has learned to read. You cannot humiliate the person who feels pride. You cannot oppress the people who are not afraid anymore." -César Chávez
eo: "Kiam ekŝanĝas socio, ĉi tiu ŝanĝo ne povas inversigi. Vi ne povas Maleduki la homon kiu lernis legi. Vi ne povas humiligi la homo kiu fieras. Vi ne povas premi la homoj kiu ne temas plu."

feel free to help any translation flaws