"Maths, in university, is useless bull..."

[Asher]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Bull****. Critical thinking is taking an argument apart and analyizing it in detail. Math ain't going to do that. It'll teach you how to deal with numbers, but it ain't going to jack for actual arguments.

Nonsense, take a high-level discrete mathematics course before talking about this any further.

"argument" = "statement" or "theory", and you've got yourself math.

It's a very common fallacy among the uneducated ( ) that critical thinking has to involve an plain-old-jane English-type argument. In reality, the argument could be that all even numbers are divisible by two (an extremely basic math proof, and I bet you couldn't do it). Go ahead and exercise your critical thinking skills on that. It's a simple 2-line proof...

Arithmetic tells you how to deal with numbers, not math.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Have you ever done one?

I've done many hundreds, at the very least...

[Asher]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Some.

I always found that part the most difficult and time consuming.

I very, very much doubt you've ever designed your own algorithm for anything non-trivial.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Drogue
Surely, since at a top college everyone would have AP in their major, the intro to CS would be goign on from there?

Not necessarily, people change majors a lot.

Moreover, wouldn't there be a harder AP course in your last year, before college?

The College Board creates AP courses. There's nothing past AP CS. However, my school happens to offer post-AP CS courses, which I am currently taking

[Asher]

IB CS is past AP CS.

[Kuciwalker]

We don't have IB at our school, just AP.

[monolith94]

"Everyone should at least know basic calculus."

Uhhh - no. I can't think of a single reason to. Literature and living is my life, and calculus just doesn't apply. Physics - now that I can understand. But I just don't personally need calc.

[LulThyme]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


Some.

I always found that part the most difficult and time consuming.

The original point was about making BETTER algorithm.
I can bet you have never done any of that, and your original point about that being close to number crunching being totally off.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Everyone should at least know basic calculus.

Why?

I can't fathom a reason, as a criminal attorney, that I would possibly use Calculus either in my career or in day to day life, and I'd wager that the vast vast majority of college grads find it similarly useless.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Show me philosophy that is rigorous like math. Otherwise, concede the point.

Read the modern metaphysicians. They are vastly indestructible. Spinoza, Leibniz, Wolff. Also try to deconstruct the 'Critique of Pure Reason' and then come back to me.

[Fake Boris]

to Drogue BTW

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
Read the modern metaphysicians. They are vastly indestructible. Spinoza, Leibniz, Wolff. Also try to deconstruct the 'Critique of Pure Reason' and then come back to me.

Anything in philosophy is destructable, as there is nothing known absolutely.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Ramo
Ah, so that's what philosophy classes are for: being able to declare arguments you disagree with as sophism.

If you see the word 'sophist' as a pejorative, then it is time for a little bit of self-criticism. They rank as highly proficient defenders of your very own ideology.

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Asher

Anything in philosophy is destructable, as there is nothing known absolutely.

As is the case for all sciences. I was only pointing out that a certain tradition of philosophy achieved near-math level riguor in their argumentative arborescence.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
As is the case for all sciences. I was only pointing out that a certain tradition of philosophy achieved near-math level riguor in their argumentative arborescence.

Yes, that's true.

Mathematics (and its applied cousins) are the only ones where we can say something is indestrucable, because it's a construct we've created with boundaries.