It has been a while since my last update. Last year was quite exhausting for everyone, between pandemic fatigue, full time work-from-home (ok, not that unusual for me), school-from-home (our normal), work demands and various projects we have been posting about here and elsewhere. One silver lining is that university courses that would normally be unavailable for distance education are now online and it is possible to meet and study alongside renowned professors and bright students from across the country and even the world. Here is what I have been up to.
Classic Math with a Modern User Interface
One item that I did not mention was that I enrolled in a for-credit math class at the Harvard Extension school (Math E-151: Classic Math with a Modern User Interface). The course description reads:
The course presents a variety of topics from linear algebra, abstract algebra, and geometry that lend themselves to an interesting visual display: for example, groups, finite fields, graph theory, finite, Euclidean, and spherical geometry. Students implement key mathematical ideas in R, build an application in R Shiny Dashboard that can be deployed to the internet, and use their software to devise conjectures that they can then prove as theorems.
https://www.extension.harvard.edu/course-catalog/courses/classic-mathematics-with-a-modern-user-interface/16435
I ended up writing about 20 R Shiny apps that demonstrated various mathematical and statistical concepts. My favorite homework assignment was https://johnbender.shinyapps.io/PetersenReactive/. For my final project, I wrote an educational application to calculate the height of a model rocket (and learn something about math) for use by middle school students (for example, kids working on their rocketry achievement in Civil Air Patrol or Scouting). https://johnbender.shinyapps.io/AltTracker-2/
This math course was one of the most rewarding classes I have ever taken. I wish that something like it had been available when I was in college! Highly recommended. I really did feel stretched, trying to recall forgotten linear algebra, trigonometry, and algebra. Not only did I learn some R and Shiny (and HTML and CSS, to boot), but also a taste of Abstract Algebra, Graph Theory and Topology! With a great deal of study and work, I managed to earn an “A” in the class! I enjoyed the class so much, that I am considering taking the Math 23 sequence (Theoretical Linear Algebra and Real Analysis) in the fall (depending on how my review of long forgotten calculus goes this spring and summer!)
R, if you are not aware, is a free programming language, primarily used by statisticians and data scientists. It has an impressive set of mathematical and graphical libraries (not surprising, given its prevalence in data science) and a rich set of built-in statistical functions. There are quite a few books, online resources, and even a Great Courses lecture series on learning statistics with R. I used the impressive R-Studio IDE (integrated development environment), which is also free along with their shinyapps.io hosting service, which is not free, but fairly inexpensive and integrates seamlessly with the IDE.
Egyptian (Middle and Coptic)
Meanwhile, I finished through chapter 7 of Hoch’s Middle Egyptian Grammar book. With the holidays and math homework occupying most (all) of my spare time, I decided to take a break from Middle Egyptian for a while. I still intend to return, but earlier this month, I started a continuing education course in Coptic at the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago. It is a short course, so really I am just getting a taste of a much later state of the Egyptian language (and, since Coptic is written with a version of the Greek alphabet with six additional letters rather than hieroglyphs, it is a bit easier to learn to read). The dialect I am learning is called Sahidic, and was the literary language from about 300 CE to 900 CE.
We are sort of using Lambdin’s Introduction to Sahidic Coptic, which is both poorly typeset and fairly inscrutable (at least without a teacher). If I ever develop some proficiency, I may try to tackle Layton’s Coptic Gnostic Chrestomathy.
At some point, when I learn a bit more Coptic and Middle Egyptian, I plan to buy a copy of Černý’s Coptic Etymological Dictionary, which includes the older hieroglyphs and word forms for Coptic words. I can only imagine the work that went into compiling this work by hand, and typesetting in multiple fonts and languages (including Old and Middle Egyptian hieroglyphs, Coptic, Greek, and English) in the middle years of the 20th century pre-computer!
Indian and Tibetan Yogācāra
I am also auditing a class at the Harvard Divinity School this semester: HDS 3544 – Indian and Tibetan Yogācāra: Buddhist Idealism, Phenomenology and Philosophy of Mind. The course description reads:
This seminar introduces students to Yogācāra thought as it developed in India and as it was understood in certain Tibetan commentarial and philosophical literature, with a bit of a peek at how Yogācāra ideas crop up in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Yogācāra school is often described as Buddhist idealism. More recent scholarly reassessment has also seen important strands of phenomenological investigation in Yogācāra. The Yogācāra literature is large and complex, and probably includes texts that fit on both sides of this divide. Yogācāra philosophers also contribute to the philosophy of mind, epistemology and the philosophy of language, and much if this work is independent of questions about idealism. Our goal will be to limn the contours of this school and to ask what insights are relevant to contemporary philosophical problems on the one hand, and to Buddhist philosophy more broadly on the other. We will read texts by and about Vasubandhu, Asaṅga, Sthiramāti and Dignāga in India, as well as some Tibetan texts that take up these themes and some recent scholarship addressing this material. All texts will be taught in English translation, but for students interested in reading in Tibetan, we can set up separate session.
My knowledge of Tibetan has mostly evaporated over the years, so I will not be joining that section. But, the material is plenty challenging in English and is one of Professor Garfield’s specialities, so I expect a challenging and rewarding semester.
I just finished reading the first assignment: selections from the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra. This sutra was originally written in Sanskrit, but the original has been lost. It was, however, translated into both Chinese and Tibetan, and it is the Tibetan version that we are reading in class. I have two translations, one is John Power’s translation with facing Tibetan called Wisdom of Buddha: The Samdhinirmochana Sutra, the other translation is freely available on the web as Unraveling the Intent. I will write a reaction paper this weekend; some of which I may post here at a later date if there is interest. Certainly it deserves a blog post of its own.
