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Beangate

The trick here is to make something old sound like a modern political scandal. Anyways, the foundation of modern Western mathematics is (or was) wrapped up with a number of, uh, strange views. The rational mind may put these rules down as "woo" or "humbug", but here we are. Here's a sample.

1. To abstain from beans.
1. To abstain from beans.
2. Not to pick up what has fallen.
3. Not to touch a white cock.
5. Not to step over a crossbar.
7. Not to eat from a whole loaf.
11. Not to walk on highways.

These are apparently excerpts from the rules of the Pythagorean order and were taken from the "The History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell. So either someone really held these beliefs, or we are being trolled down through history. Number 11 is pretty good advice: it is quite possible that a human sitting in a car will steer into you.

"But what has all this to do with mathematics?" Good question! Bertrand Russell carves out philosophy as a space between things we know (science) and things that are beyond that (dogma).

The Orphics were an ascetic sect; wine, to them, was only a symbol, as, later, in the Christian sacrament. The intoxication that they sought was that of "enthusiasm," of union with the god. They believed themselves, in this way, to acquire mystic knowledge not obtainable by ordinary means. This mystical element entered into Greek philosophy with Pythagoras, who was a reformer of Orphism, as Orpheus was a reformer of the religion of Bacchus. From Pythagoras Orphic elements entered into the philosophy of Plato, and from Plato into most later philosophy that was in any degree religious.

For Pythagoras, the "passionate sympathetic contemplation" was intellectual, and issued in mathematical knowledge. In this way, through Pythagoreanism, "theory" gradually acquired its modern meaning; but for all who were inspired by Pythagoras it retained an element of ecstatic revelation. To those who have reluctantly learnt a little mathematics in school this may seem strange; but to those who have experienced the intoxicating delight of sudden understanding that mathematics gives, from time to time, to those who love it, the Pythagorean view will seem completely natural even if untrue.

https://oeis.org/search?q=1%2C1%2C2%2C3%2C5%2C7%2C11

    < gordonjcp> weird
    < gordonjcp> oh well, the maths still works out