Jessica wrote on Friday Nov 7th 1997: >brian.... > >is that a play on Descartes? "I feel, therefore I am." -me sounds a bit >like "cogito, ergo sum," Descartes philosophy (translated as "I think, >therefore I am) guess i am learning something in this philosophy class >after all! Well it's not a play on Descartes - it's actually my own philosophy. I call it schmealism. I wanted to write it in Latin but I don't know much. I guess it could be "fellatio, ergo sum" but I'm not 100% if that's right. ;) Seiously though, as a mathematician, I had Descartes imprinted on my conscious to a scary degree, and it's only in recent years as I look at the history of maths and logic that I see the profound impact he and Aristotle before him had on society as a whole. I don't really know enough of my facts (when has that ever stopped me?), but I'll try and throw some sort of excuse or reason at you. Firstly, it's probably a rebellious statement of sorts for numerous, both personal and public, reasons (I'm an INTP, a mathematician, I was brought up a Roman Catholic, stereotyped as a bivalent thinker and feeler etc.) I may be a logical, even a linear thinker, but that does not disallow me from emotions as wild as my drunken eyes. It's just trying to encourage the pendulum to swing in the other direction a little. I was going to launch into a huge theory there about Aristotle, fuzzy logic, matriarchal society, the Catholic church, Freemasonry and Bill Gates, but I really have to go to the bathroom. Ah well, maybe another time . . . . . cheers, Brian PS by the time I read your mail, I had actually changed my .sig. Isn't it ironic? I prefer the new one - it's nice and bitter :@ -- Brian fentonb@mathds1.ul.ie VENEER homepage: http://mathds1.ul.ie:8080/ --"Drop"------------------------------------------------------- "all the love in an instant, makes my life stop, but then my hate for you, makes the feelings of together drop" -------------------------------------Red House Painters-------