FOM: What is f.o.m., briefly?

Maximillian Montmorency Murphy mmm4 at st-andrews.ac.uk
Wed Oct 3 05:48:56 EDT 2001


May I humbly suggest that cultivation of ideas, like that of plants, needs
both gentleness and discipline.  The gentleness permits the plant to first
lay its roots and to grow, the discipline is later applied to test the
strength of the plant and remove unwholesome parts of it.

The "perhaps" most frequently, in the English language, relaxes the
discipline and demands that the imagination should try to find a way in
which the consequent statement might hold.  A more general form of "does
there exist". 

In that respect I think that Mr Kanovei has said precisely what he meant,
you have his explanatory e-mail.  I would further suggest that he is
right, in that this subject demands both imagination and discipline.  How
on an earth could any great idea be born strong?  A concession to our
humanity perhaps.

Best Wishes,

Maximillian.  (An even smaller fish!)
"Experience is the tutor of fools."
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Maximillian Murphy
School of Mathematics and Computational Sciences
University of St. Andrews
St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS
SCOTLAND
United Kingdom
                tel:    (++44) 01334 46 3762
                fax:    (++44) 01334 46 3748
                v.mail: (++44) 01334 42 4081
                email: mmm4 at st-andrews.ac.uk

http://www-maths.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/pg/pure/Algebra/
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