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From: cjh@petsd.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.misc,sci.math,sci.math.symbolic,talk.philosophy.misc
Subject: Re: G. Spenser-Brown: `Laws Of Form', and the four-color map theorem
Message-ID: <962@petsd.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 27-Feb-87 14:19:19 EST
Article-I.D.: petsd.962
Posted: Fri Feb 27 14:19:19 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 1-Mar-87 12:10:37 EST
References: <424@wheaton.UUCP>
Reply-To: cjh@petsd.UUCP (C. J. Henrich)
Organization: Perkin-Elmer DSG, Tinton Falls, N.J.
Lines: 35
Xref: utgpu comp.misc:297 sci.math:646 sci.math.symbolic:50 talk.philosophy.misc:479
Summary: Less to it than meets the eye.

[]
In article <424@wheaton.UUCP> stucki@wheaton.UUCP writes:
>
>I have this book by G. Spenser-Brown called 'The Laws of Form' which claims
>that it is the means by which the four-color map theorem was first proved in
>a sufficient manner.  I'm looking for confirmation or refutation of this
>claim.  Spenser-Brown claims that the proof by K. Appel and W. Haken (1976)
>had a weak proposition which he has rectified in his proof.  Also if anyone
>has opinions as to the quality of the work in this book or its validity I
>would like to know.
>
If this is the book that I remember, it is an amateurish treatment of
some very elementary parts of propositional calculus.  The book is
chiefly notable for its unusual notation: boxes within boxes.
The author seems to have rediscovered the "Sheffer [sp?] stroke"
which is defined something like
           x | y = NOT ( x OR y).
All the other Boolean functions can be built up from this.

Spenser-Brown's rediscovery of this mildly interesting fact is OK as
far as it goes.  Unfortunately, he makes grandiose claims for the
importance and originality of his work. As for his alleged
contribution to the four-color theorem, I would dismiss it with the
rest of his self-hype.

Regards,
Chris

--
Full-Name:  Christopher J. Henrich
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