Why do creative and/or intelligent people often suffer from some kind of mental illness, or at least bouts of, if not a steady, depression? Citing too many examples seems unnecessary as it's brought to mass attention enough - suicidal rock stars, mathematicians, alcoholic/drug-addicted artists, missing ears, and so on. "A Beautiful Mind", referenced in the post's title, addressed this very phenomenon (albeit, only in one man). "Pollock" seems less well-known, but also excellent & shows how a creative was both raised and brought to his knees by his extra-ordinary thinking.

Original article here:
http://spacecollective.org/Olena/5122/Beautiful-Minds

Overall, a brilliant production which begins to fill the gaping hole of man's collective knowledge called 'Ignorance'. However, there are some misleading conjectures in the piece on Godel. One example : The 'dramatization' of Godel, while discussing his 'First Incompleteness Theorem', depicts a middle-aged man. The fact is that two years before publishing, in 1931, Godel had satisfied himself with the invulnerable truth of his theorem at the age of 23! A golden opportunity was missed. Indeed, Cantor and Boltzmann were older men at the the time of their great achievements, but both Godel and (to a lesser degree) Einstein were young men as they pondered and ultimately presented to us their great 'Gifts'. And (nothing 'personal') as far as any attempt to penetrate the motivations behind and the mind of Kurt Godel goes -- GOOD LUCK! So far, the best is the outstanding work of Prof. Rebecca Goldstein, "INCOMPLETENESS -- The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel". Well written, crafted and thoroughly researched, HER achievement stands alone, not unlike her subject. Other than that, "Huzzah!", I cry! Well done and thank you!

more about "Philosophy, Physics, Mathematics - “D…", posted with vodpod

Free University in Internet. Over 300 political, social, cultural & scientifical Clips under “ kam200 ” . Anthropology, Archaeology, Astrophysics, Atheism, Biology, Cosmology, Democracy, Feminism, Freedom, Genetics, Geology, History, Human, rights, Palaeontology, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, Science, Sociology, Zoology, And many more … http://free-university-in-internet.blogspot.com