{∅, {∅}, {∅, {∅}}} :: The Suicidal Erections

Have you been inspired by the few sections in Schopenhauer's work where he is critical of Euclid?

Are you on a mission to blow a hole THIS BIG through this world's idea of itself?

Mathematical reasoning, Schopenhauer argued, is fundamentally different from ordinary logical or syllogistic reasoning in being based on intuition or construction, not on deduction from premises to conclusion; and accordingly Schopenhauer advocated the revision of Euclid, who, he believed, mixes the genuinely geometrical with the spurious logical proof. Schopenhauer even offered specimens of the right kind of proof. While the idea is interesting, I feel daunted by complexity of the problem Schopenhauer has raised.

We were also circling around this in November 2014: Firm Inner Conviction which references What is Qualitas Occulta.

The theorem of Pythagoras teaches us a qualitas occulta of the right angled triangle; the stilted, and indeed subtle, proof of Euclid forsakes us at the why, and the accompanying simple figure, already known to us, gives at a glance far more insight into the matter, and firm inner conviction of that necessity, and of the dependence of that property on the right angle, than is given by his proof.

I am hoping that this is how Wilkes approaches an attempt to reinvent mathematics for ourselves.

He will want the reader to geometrically visualize (a + b)^2 as a square rather than memorize the "mechanics" of computing the algebraic expansion.

I want to support his efforts however I can.  he seems to be a real person, not a phony gort.

 I really hope that his book breathes some life into me.  Sometimes I become very discouraged and depressed, like there is just so much to learn, and I will only be able to grasp a certain amount ... I think it makes sense to become depressed.