ভূমিকা
Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books An Aesthetic Representation of Alfred North Whitehead's Philosophy of Mathematics Education A STORY Ali’s in the World of Heavens Ali was beginning to tire of sitting by his brother on the bank now that he had finished his mathematics homework. He had excelled at today’s work to such a degree that he could do the problems without even thinking about them.[^1] Deeply bored, Ali peeked at the mathematics book his brother was reading.
The book contained no numbers; Ali only saw meaningless symbols.[^2] “What is the use of a mathematics book”, Ali thought, “without numbers or practical problems to solve?” But as he studied the book, Ali realized the symbols were not stable. Instead, as his brother read, the symbols were mysteriously changing and transforming into a different set of symbols. Ali’s brother did not seem to notice the changing symbols for it was his thoughts that were defining the meaning of the symbols.
Ali imagined his brother's brain expanding, getting bigger and bigger as it was filled with all the things he has been reading. The hot sun made Ali feel very sleepy and stupid, and he turned his attention from the perplexing book to the small pleasure of making a daisy chain. Ali wondered if it would be possible to make a chain with an infinite radius and whether it would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking an infinite number of daisies.
He also wondered whether the diameter consisting of all the real numbers would be larger than the total number of daisies in the circumference?[^3] Pondering this question, Ali was saddened to realize that no daisy could live long enough to finish this infinite chain; it would either shrivel and die or be brutally consumed by a rabbit - a rabbit like the one with a white head and pink eyes that had just run by him.
This idea of the daisies and a selfish rabbit seemed nothing more than sad[^4] until Ali heard the white-headed rabbit (or just Whitehead for the sake of simplicity) exclaim, “Oh dear! Oh dear! Not again! Why do I have to lose my ability to talk every time I am here?”[^5] This was no ordinary rabbit. Ali wondered whether Whitehead was real at all,[^6] or whether he might have imagined this impossible creature.
“I think I should simply ignore it and continue to act according to my interest[^7] , which is to make this infinitely large chain of daisies,” Ali thought. Then, something even stranger happened.