Poets do not go mad; but chess players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers: but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination.
G. K. Chesterton as quoted in John D. Barrow’s ‘Pi in the Sky’.
Factually false. The Openness personality trait, and creativity in general, is linked with mental issues like schizophrenia (see also Spent 2011), while the only investigation I currently am aware of for mathematicians does not find any noticeable increase for 48 prominent modern logicians (including Godel): http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2011/07/disproofing-myth-that-many-early.html
(I will note I am not surprised in the least that the quote comes from Chesterton.)
Is 48 a statistically significant sample? Seriously, I do not take this quotation as factually correct. I am intrigued by the idea of logic set against imagination as I don’t view them as necessarily opposing attributes. I am also amused at the idea of dividing the world into (a) poets and other creative artists and (b) chess players, mathematicians and cashiers. When I am amused I like to share—and I thought that was the point of this particular thread.
Statistically significant? Well, I’ve seen psychology studies published with smaller Ns… The point is that that is way more solid evidence than the usual litany of anecdotage which is adduced as evidence for that thesis, which is rarely meant metaphorically. Usually when one sees someone remark about mathematicians and madness, they mean it quite literally. I have no reason to think Chesterton, that old contrarian Catholic, meant it any differently.
Give yourself to availability bias. It is the only way you can save this argument. Yes, let your context betray you. Your experiences with it are strong. Especially with… mad poets. So, you know some mad poets.
Poets do not go mad; but chess players do. Mathematicians go mad, and cashiers: but creative artists very seldom. I am not, as will be seen, in any sense attacking logic: I only say that this danger does lie in logic, not in imagination. G. K. Chesterton as quoted in John D. Barrow’s ‘Pi in the Sky’.
Factually false. The Openness personality trait, and creativity in general, is linked with mental issues like schizophrenia (see also Spent 2011), while the only investigation I currently am aware of for mathematicians does not find any noticeable increase for 48 prominent modern logicians (including Godel): http://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2011/07/disproofing-myth-that-many-early.html
(I will note I am not surprised in the least that the quote comes from Chesterton.)
Is 48 a statistically significant sample? Seriously, I do not take this quotation as factually correct. I am intrigued by the idea of logic set against imagination as I don’t view them as necessarily opposing attributes. I am also amused at the idea of dividing the world into (a) poets and other creative artists and (b) chess players, mathematicians and cashiers. When I am amused I like to share—and I thought that was the point of this particular thread.
Statistically significant? Well, I’ve seen psychology studies published with smaller Ns… The point is that that is way more solid evidence than the usual litany of anecdotage which is adduced as evidence for that thesis, which is rarely meant metaphorically. Usually when one sees someone remark about mathematicians and madness, they mean it quite literally. I have no reason to think Chesterton, that old contrarian Catholic, meant it any differently.
It seems like I have many more examples of mad poets than mad mathematicians and chess players available in my head.
Give yourself to availability bias. It is the only way you can save this argument. Yes, let your context betray you. Your experiences with it are strong. Especially with… mad poets. So, you know some mad poets.