#wittgenstein — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Alan J. Cain @[email protected] · 2026-09-08 · 13:56 UTC

Reading Cheryl Misak’s biography of Frank Ramsey (1903–30), who made important contributions to mathematics, philosophy, and economics before his untimely death [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_P._Ramsey]. (E.g. Ramsey theory is named for him and #Wittgenstein and #Keynes talked to him as an equal.)

So far, it is very good, but I have been repeated jarred out of my reading by the ghastly (and thus fortunately only occasional) mathematical typography.

See attached, all from a few pages concerning his work on Wittgenstein's ‘Tractatus’:

1. Use of text figures makes + and = too high, and the no space before =.

2. ‘v’ (letter) instead of ‘∨’ (logical or).

3. Use of italic parenthesis in maths.

I don’t fault the author, who is not a mathematician. But I thought Oxford University Press had standards.

#typography #pedantry #rant

#rant #pedantry #typography #keynes #wittgenstein

Alan J. Cain @[email protected] · 2026-09-08 · 13:56 UTC

Reading Cheryl Misak’s biography of Frank Ramsey (1903–30), who made important contributions to mathematics, philosophy, and economics before his untimely death [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_P._Ramsey]. (E.g. Ramsey theory is named for him and #Wittgenstein and #Keynes talked to him as an equal.)

So far, it is very good, but I have been repeated jarred out of my reading by the ghastly (and thus fortunately only occasional) mathematical typography.

See attached, all from a few pages concerning his work on Wittgenstein's ‘Tractatus’:

1. Use of text figures makes + and = too high, and the no space before =.

2. ‘v’ (letter) instead of ‘∨’ (logical or).

3. Use of italic parenthesis in maths.

I don’t fault the author, who is not a mathematician. But I thought Oxford University Press had standards.

#typography #pedantry #rant

#rant #pedantry #typography #keynes #wittgenstein

Alan J. Cain @[email protected] · 2026-09-08 · 13:56 UTC

Reading Cheryl Misak’s biography of Frank Ramsey (1903–30), who made important contributions to mathematics, philosophy, and economics before his untimely death [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_P._Ramsey]. (E.g. Ramsey theory is named for him and #Wittgenstein and #Keynes talked to him as an equal.)

So far, it is very good, but I have been repeated jarred out of my reading by the ghastly (and thus fortunately only occasional) mathematical typography.

See attached, all from a few pages concerning his work on Wittgenstein's ‘Tractatus’:

1. Use of text figures makes + and = too high, and the no space before =.

2. ‘v’ (letter) instead of ‘∨’ (logical or).

3. Use of italic parenthesis in maths.

I don’t fault the author, who is not a mathematician. But I thought Oxford University Press had standards.

#typography #pedantry #rant

#rant #pedantry #typography #keynes #wittgenstein

Alan J. Cain @[email protected] · 2026-09-08 · 13:56 UTC

Reading Cheryl Misak’s biography of Frank Ramsey (1903–30), who made important contributions to mathematics, philosophy, and economics before his untimely death [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_P._Ramsey]. (E.g. Ramsey theory is named for him and #Wittgenstein and #Keynes talked to him as an equal.)

So far, it is very good, but I have been repeated jarred out of my reading by the ghastly (and thus fortunately only occasional) mathematical typography.

See attached, all from a few pages concerning his work on Wittgenstein's ‘Tractatus’:

1. Use of text figures makes + and = too high, and the no space before =.

2. ‘v’ (letter) instead of ‘∨’ (logical or).

3. Use of italic parenthesis in maths.

I don’t fault the author, who is not a mathematician. But I thought Oxford University Press had standards.

#typography #pedantry #rant

#wittgenstein #keynes #typography #pedantry #rant

Alan J. Cain @[email protected] · 2026-09-08 · 13:56 UTC

Reading Cheryl Misak’s biography of Frank Ramsey (1903–30), who made important contributions to mathematics, philosophy, and economics before his untimely death [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_P._Ramsey]. (E.g. Ramsey theory is named for him and #Wittgenstein and #Keynes talked to him as an equal.)

So far, it is very good, but I have been repeated jarred out of my reading by the ghastly (and thus fortunately only occasional) mathematical typography.

See attached, all from a few pages concerning his work on Wittgenstein's ‘Tractatus’:

1. Use of text figures makes + and = too high, and the no space before =.

2. ‘v’ (letter) instead of ‘∨’ (logical or).

3. Use of italic parenthesis in maths.

I don’t fault the author, who is not a mathematician. But I thought Oxford University Press had standards.

#typography #pedantry #rant

#pedantry #typography #keynes #wittgenstein #rant

Alan J. Cain @[email protected] · 2026-08-01 · 18:31 UTC

Update to ‘An Annotated Mathematician’s Apology’, with a new section on Wittgenstein’s response: https://archive.org/details/hardy_annotated (accessible #TaggedPDF, #OpenAccess)