After hearing a PSA on AAR the past few days, I have a question...

[brendan120678]

Can anybody explain to me why the concepts of odd and even are a philosophical illusion??

That Girl Scouts/Ad Council PSA is driving me nuts over this!! I know, I'm a little weird presenting this question. But still, I want to know!

[Rabrrrrrr]

1. What are you talking about?

What's a AAR? I assume by PSA you mean Public Service Announcement?

It's always helpful if you provide the full extent of the question at hand, and not assume that everyone knows what you're talking about with abbreviations and the content of a commerical.

And welcome to DU! :hi:

[brendan120678]

2. True...sorry for being vague...

There is a public service announcement that gets played on Air America Radio quite frequently. The premise is basically something like this:

1. A girl asks her father why the sky is blue.
   
2. THe father answers it's to mach the daughters blue eyes
   
3. THe girl says no, it's because...and she goes on to give a long detailed scientific explanation which I don't know because I'm a political science person, not a physical science person.
   
4. THe father asks her where she heard it, the girl says her mother.
   
5. THe announcer tells about the importance of instilling science and math education in gurls because they are underrepresented in that field.
   
6. THe girl then asks her father if he knows why the concepts of odd and even are a philosophical illusion.
   

And that's where the commercial ends. I guess it's not important that I know the answer, I'm just curious to hear it. I think I can kind of figure it out on my own, being that I know a little more about philosophy than science, but I still want to knoe..lol.

:crazy:

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. I see - thanks!

Don't know the answer, other than that it could be that the idea of odd and even is not a mathematically necessary division; it could just as easily have been based on three, instead of two, to have odd numbers being those not divisible by three, and even as those that are divisable by three.

I don't know if there is a real philosophical thought saying that odd and even are a philosophical illusion, but if there is, then perhaps that's the reasoning. Though I don't know. :-)


It's a great ad, though - wonderful that their pushing for science and math for girls. And, really, just for pushing for science and math - America is sorely lacking in these topics in general, and now that the reichwing is trying to push their brand of Christian-doctrine-based psuedo-science, it's especially important that someone is crying out for teaching legitimate science.