Mathematics of, by and for peace

by Professor, Rector EPU, Dietrich Fischer, and Professor, Rector TPU, Johan Galtung.

Day 1

Introduction: What is mathematics? (and some rules of thought)

The chapter/hour starts with a brief introduction to that branch of mathematics, bringing in peace applications. Theorems will be mentioned even if the proof is beyond the reader. The reader/participant is the general public, eager to learn something new, whether from the mathematics or the peace angle. A goal is a book/course for high school and undergraduate students, freshman-sophomore, and a children’s book, to make mathematics more accessible, more fun and more meaningful.

[1] NUMBERS (building on arithmetics, even, uneven, prime, camels, theorems like Goldbach, beyond integers, simple combinatorics, permutations, selections, measures like statistical parameters for distribution, information)

[2] SETS (intension-extension, union-intersection-difference, above all cartesian products of sets, the empty set as algorithm, logic, truth tables, learning to think)

[3] GRAPHS (building on geometry, the visible, the usual parameters, focus on balance, polarization, vertical-horizontal, parameters for structural violence)

Day 2

[4] RELATIONS (reflexive-symmetric-transitive; products of relations, structures, isomorphism, models)

[5] MATRICES (as representing graphs and relations, products of matrices, Markov chains, stochastic relation matrices)

[6] GAMES (two actors, utilities, minimax and maximin, saddle points, Prisoner’s Dilemma, Axelrod)

[7] SYSTEMS (feedback positive and negative for poloicies, lags)

Day 3

[8] CHANGE (something about calculus, differential equations relating change rates, Richardson arms races, conditions of stability)

[9] CHAOS (the world is not Euclidean, fractals, cosmos in chaos, self-similarity as peace approach)

[10] CATASTROPHE (the world is not continuous, types of discontinuity, crises, opportunities)

Epilogue: An overview: of, by and for (and further development)