From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/5337 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Vaughan Pratt Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: Dangerous knowledge Date: Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:15:51 -0800 Message-ID: References: Reply-To: Vaughan Pratt NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1260322226 18124 80.91.229.12 (9 Dec 2009 01:30:26 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 01:30:26 +0000 (UTC) To: categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: categories@mta.ca Wed Dec 09 02:30:19 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from mailserv.mta.ca ([138.73.1.1]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1NIBNh-0004kK-W0 for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Wed, 09 Dec 2009 02:30:18 +0100 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1NIB3k-0007UM-Hs for categories-list@mta.ca; Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:09:40 -0400 Original-Sender: categories@mta.ca Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:5337 Archived-At: [Note from moderator: while interesting, this thread has strayed well off-topic; to be posted further submissions must be relevant to categories.] Jim Stasheff wrote: > I seem to recall some such work on Asperger's > see book by Ioan James and a benefides neuroscientist Ioan James held the Savilian Chair of Geometry at Oxford during 1970-95, and seems to be the only author. Where does the neuroscientist come into it? Autism is a pretty disabling condition. The 20 individuals James writes about seem at worst to be only mildly autistic and surely would be better described as having Asperger syndrome if even that. In 1944 Hans Asperger described a behavioral pattern that, according to the Wikipedia article on him, included "a lack of empathy, little ability to form friendships, one-sided conversation, intense absorption in a special interest, and clumsy movements." Anyone who's gone overtime in a conference talk at the expense of the next speaker could be judged as having at least three of the first four of these, and the audience would then be riveted on the speaker's movements to assess their clumsiness. And how does one judge "ability to form friendships?" By the number of the speaker's coauthors? Some people are by nature private, others compartmentalize their time into private and social periods so that they can get some work done in their private time. How is someone to be judged when their social time is only say 10% or 20% of their private time? Wikipedia has the following article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_speculated_to_have_been_autistic whose introduction reads --- Famous historical people have been speculated to have been autistic by journalists, academics and autism professionals. Such speculation is controversial and little of it is undisputed. For example, several autism researchers speculate that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had autism and other diagnoses, while other researchers say there is not sufficient evidence to draw conclusions that he had any diagnoses --- The body of the article includes "Speculation about their diagnoses is based on reported behaviors rather than any clinical observation of the individual. Fred Volkmar, a psychiatrist and autism expert and director of the Yale Child Study Center says, 'There is unfortunately a sort of cottage industry of finding that everyone has Asperger's.' " Here's the Amazon product description of James' book, and two customer reviews. --- This fascinating collection identifies famous figures from the past, whose behaviour suggests they may have had autism, a disorder that was not defined until the mid - 20th century. James looks at the lives of 20 individuals - scientists, artists, politicians and philosophers - examining in detail their interests, successes, indifferences and shortcomings. Among the profiles are those of mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell, who wondered in his autobiography how he managed to hurt the people around him quite without meaning to; biologist Alfred Kinsey, who excelled in academia but was ill at ease in social situations; and the writer Patricia Highsmith, who had very definite likes (fountain pens and absence of noise) and dislikes (television and four-course meals). From Albert Einstein to Philip of Spain, these intriguing individuals all showed clear evidence of autistic traits. This book will be of interest to general readers and anyone with a personal or professional interest in autism. --- --- FIRST REVIEW: "Offers opportunity for personal insight" This book is not what I expected, yet I appreciate its contribution to the literature on this topic. Twenty biographical accounts are arranged chronologically. Each offers basic facts about the life and accomplishments of the individual, and includes accounts of their behaviors, their own views of their challenges and accomplishments as well as the perceptions of their contemporaries. Taken together, these twenty biographies offer me insights into human diversity and the importance of accepting ourselves and others for our strengths as well as our idiosyncrasies. As a teacher it helps me both understand and appreciate unique children. --- --- SECOND REVIEW: "Not another book about famous people who might have had Asperger Syndrome!" I have to say, this genre is getting rather tired, and there is a lot of overlap between all the books on this subject, of which there are many. If you already own one of the other books on this subject, you don't need to buy this one, and if you don't already own a book on this subject, this one is as good as any. What else can I say? It's 20 mini biographies of people the author has researched and considers to show signs of having had Asperger Syndrome. Interesting enough, and probably succeeds in the stated aim of raising the self esteem of people with AS. --- Vaughan [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]