Tuesday, June 19, 2012

The Pedagogical Nature of Constructivism

Errett Bishop is said to have 'gone religious'.  Referring not to some act of theosophy, but rather to him becoming an intuitionist.  One of the interesting features of the intuitionists is the rejection of the law of excluded middle (and of the axiom of choice, which Bishop himself rejected that he rejected that, but insofar as I've seen it in practice, he never uses it and shies away from it).  The philosophical ramifications of accepting such a position are interesting, although, for various reasons that I won't go into here I find wrong.  Yet, more importantly, I still appreciate this school of thought--not for the philosophical import, but rather for their pedagogical import.

That is, a theory that is devoid of proofs of contradictions, tend to make a more cogent theory that is easier to understand, and easier to see how the theory is fully developed and why certain theorems/etc. are needed.  As opposed to the shorter lickety-split proofs that provide quick answers, yet, in my opinion, lacking insight.

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