Mathematical Mind

Every week for one of my classes, we are required to write a letter in response to a letter my teacher had previously written to us. We are not graded on the quality or profoundness of our letters. As long as it's about a page long and we are incorporating our personal views into concepts covered in class, we get a 100% on the weekly assignment.

The main topic of this week's letters is the fluidity of concepts like valor and courage. For example, an action that might be 'right' in one situation might be considered 'wrong' or 'immoral' in another. In describing my view on this topic, I found myself using math to explain myself.

In the vernacular, I agree that concepts like rightness, courage, and valor change according to the context. However, that’s not how I think of it. Rather, I think of these concepts as being unchangeable. When applied to different situations, it may appear as though their meaning has changed because of the different actions taken in the names of these concepts. However, it is because the actions have changed with the circumstances that they are constant. Think of it like a formula: y=Ax, for instance. The ‘y’ represents the actions taken in the name of rightness, courage, valor, etc. The ‘x’ represents the circumstances or the particular situation. ‘A’ represents these concepts. With different ‘x’s, we are going to get different ‘y’s, however, the A is constant and unchanging no matter what ‘x’ is. It always affects the resulting ‘y’, but never, in of itself, changes. Now, a more complicated situations, a more complicated formula would be needed to represent it, but there will always be constants, even if those constants are simply ‘1’.

After writing this, I realized that this might be really confusing to the non-mathematically inclined. Which is really unfortunate, because I was actually proud of my ability to describe my view on the subject through mathematics. Though, I also thought that this would be a perfect example on how it's sometimes hard for me to communicate with some people. 

As demonstrated in this excerpt, I think of almost everything in terms of mathematics. It is the most clear language to me and the easiest way for me to communicate all my ideas. Even my non-mathematical/scientific ones. My understanding of social interactions, homework, studying, politics, exercise and so on... are all various formulas in my head. However, I believe the vast majority of people do NOT think like this at all. I think a lot of good ideas or concepts I have are lost because I have trouble translating the very precise language of math to the very imprecise language of the world.

Which is sad, really. I like a lot of my ideas and would like to share them. But in the end, a lot of them are going to end up trapped.