WEBVTT

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Hi, this has been a good week and we've talked

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about definitions. We started with prime numbers.

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We saw how changing Euclid's assumptions opened

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the door to entirely new geometries. We also

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talked about Leibniz and how good notation helps

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other people see what we see. We considered how

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new words can help us to notice new patterns.

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And we discovered that even something as simple

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as saying two objects are the same depends on

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what we mean by the same. Definitions are incredibly

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powerful. And at its core, mathematics is often

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about identifying precisely in what sense something

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is true. And definitions make that possible.

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Two is even. A coffee mug and a donut are topologically

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equivalent. Here's one. Two sets have the same

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size. if their elements can be matched one -to

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-one. And once we've carefully defined what we

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mean, we can follow the patterns and see where

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they lead. But yesterday, we talked about the

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other side of definitions. Every definition focuses

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our attention on certain things while leaving

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other things out. And that's usually fine when

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we're talking about numbers. But it can be dangerous

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when we're talking about people. Now, I can notice

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that someone repeatedly tries to control situations.

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For example, no names. Recognizing that pattern

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might be helpful. But there's a difference between

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saying this person sometimes behaves in controlling

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ways and saying this is a controlling person.

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The first describes a pattern. The second begins

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to define a person. And I don't think... any

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of us can be captured that easily. Last week

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we explored worldview. That's the starting beliefs

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where we see everything else. Perhaps definitions

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and worldview eventually meet at a very important

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question. What is your starting definition for

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a human being? I'll tell you mine. I believe

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that every human being has value. So before I

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know what you've accomplished, and before I know

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your beliefs, and before I know whether we agree,

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and before I know your strengths, your weaknesses,

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your successes, or your failures, I believe you

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have value. That's part of my worldview. And

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if that's my starting definition, then it should

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affect how I see the people around me, even the

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difficult ones. And it should affect how I see

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myself. So here's one final question for our

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week. What do you believe makes a human being

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valuable? This is Dave from Intersecting Us.