Comment by joe_the_user
17 years ago
Our brains are not binary storage units, and therefore anecdotes and parables have historically been used to help people remember things.
Yes, an anecdote is a tool. It's great for remembering things, poor for proving things. It just so happens the only conceivable purpose of the original story was proving something. Now, if he had anecdote which helped you remember, say, the standard form of the quadratic equation or something else people just needed to remember, then it would be using the tool for its proper purpose.
It just so happens the only conceivable purpose of the original story was proving something.
Absolutely wrong. The purpose of the original story was to provide an illustration.
Now, if he had anecdote which helped you remember, say, the standard form of the quadratic equation...
There are ideas and lessons worth remembering that aren't mathematical facts.