Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

1. Continue Reading "Brown (James Robert) - Philosophy of Mathematics: A Contemporary Introduction to the World of Proofs and Pictures".
2. Sort through the papers collected in "Carmeli (Moshe), Hartnett (John G.), Etc - Scientific Papers of Moshe Carmeli, John Hartnett & Others", and review in the light of:-
   • "Carmeli (Moshe) - Cosmological Relativity: The Special and General Theories for the Structure of the Universe", and
   • The mathematical appendices of "Hartnett (John) - Starlight, Time and the New Physics: How we can see starlight in our young universe".
3. As a background task, continue reading:-
   … "Magueijo (Joao) - Faster Than The Speed of Light: The Story of a Scientific Speculation"

1. Complete reading "Brown (James Robert) - Philosophy of Mathematics: A Contemporary Introduction to the World of Proofs and Pictures", and write a file note.
2. Complete reading "Beals (Richard) - Analysis: An Introduction"; note – do the exercises!
3. Read & write file-note on "Doxiadis (Apostolos) - Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture".
4. Read & write file-note on "Doxiadis (Apostolos) & Papadimitriou (Christos H.) - Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth".
5. Review "Carmeli (Moshe) - Cosmological Relativity: The Special and General Theories for the Structure of the Universe".
6. Review the mathematical appendices of "Hartnett (John) - Starlight, Time and the New Physics: How we can see starlight in our young universe".
7. Sort through the papers collected in "Carmeli (Moshe), Hartnett (John G.), Etc - Scientific Papers of Moshe Carmeli, John Hartnett & Others".
8. Complete the answers¹ to the problem-set in “advanced elementary” mathematics associated with the King’s Mathematics Reunion in January 2009.
9. Read, and thoroughly internalise, "Bais (Sander) - Very Special Relativity: An Illustrated Guide". This is worth reading, as a refresher, since an understanding of time is a prerequisite for a full understanding of persistence, which is itself a prerequisite for understanding questions of identity, in particular personal identity, the topic of my intended Thesis². And, naturally, an understanding of relativity theory is essential for a proper understanding of time. If that’s how time works, then philosophers better believe it. Since Special Relativity is (or was) a Cambridge mathematics first-term course, the fact that I’ve still not thoroughly grasped it shows up my mathematical abilities for what they are, sadly. I intend to get to grips with relativity (special and general) as a medium-term project.
10. Continue serious study of "French (A.P.) - Special Relativity", and compare with "Bais (Sander) - Very Special Relativity: An Illustrated Guide".
11. Review probability theory for general philosophical purposes, and as an aid to Bridge.
    • Start with "Ross (Sheldon) - A First Course in Probability".
    • For bridge – read "Kelsey (Hugh) & Glauert (Michael) - Bridge Odds for Practical Players".
12. Complete the lecture series "Shankar (Ramamurti) - Fundamentals of Physics", in conjunction with the exercises and reading "Wolfson (Richard) & Pasachoff (Jay M.) - Physics with Modern Physics". I need to take the mathematics seriously for the course to be worth following.
13. Repeat "Bailyn (Charles) - Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics", this time doing the exercises – without doing these, understanding is at best incomplete.

1. Read "Rindler (Wolfgang) - Introduction to Special Relativity".
2. Read "Schutz (Bernard) - A First Course in General Relativity".
3. Read "Misner (Charles W.), Thorne (Kip S.) & Wheeler (John Archibald) - Gravitation".
4. Write a brief paper³ summarising the epistemological benefits of elementary mathematics when applied to the raw observational data.
5. Re-start and complete the first-year course on discrete mathematics from the LSE.
6. Based on success in the above endeavours, decide whether to take serious study any further.

1. I have downloaded a variety of course-material from the websites of various London Colleges, together with stuff from the Oxford and Cambridge websites, focusing on those courses having exercises with worked examples. I’ve also dusted off my old notes, which seem to have been written by someone else.
2. As a warm-up exercise, I started a first-year course on discrete mathematics from the LSE.
3. Listened to the Open Yale course "Bailyn (Charles) - Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics".
4. Read:-
   • "Bais (Sander) - Very Special Relativity: An Illustrated Guide",
   • "Doxiadis (Apostolos) - Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture", and
   • "Doxiadis (Apostolos) & Papadimitriou (Christos H.) - Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth".
   .

Live Version of this Archived Note

Table of 12 Earlier Versions of this Note (of 31)

Table of 12 Later Versions of this Note (of 42)

1. Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026