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According to my sources, "heuristic" refers to a process of discovery; essentially by trial and error. On the n-Lab it seems to be getting used as an adjective to mean something like "not very technical". Am I misreading something here?
To make the point a little more general, the n-Lab is fairly international and so in its expression it should strive to be as simple as possible. We have enough jargon within the mathematics so I think that we should aim for simple language elsewhere. Maybe I notice this more than others since, as one of the few native English speakers who contributes, when I encounter a word or phrase that doesn't make sense (linguistically, not mathematically) then I can be fairly confident that it is the word or phrase that is incorrect and not my grasp of the English language. Or if it is me that has it wrong then it is highly likely that others will also be confused and so the offending term should be mollified to make it clearer.
So, now's your chance to object before I purge the n-Lab of the word "heuristic" and other grammatical nonsense!
Also, of the 3 biggest contributors to the Lab (Urs, Mike, and I), at least one and probably two are native English speakers. In my experience, intelligent non-native speakers know more about what's officially acceptable to grammarians, if still less about the actual grammar of casual speech. I wonder, however, if you (Andrew) are particularly sensitive (among native speakers) to the needs of non-native speakers by working in Norway?
Okay, my "native English speaker" line didn't go down well. I apologise for that. My intention was to keep the tone light whereas it appears to have had the opposite effect.
I probably am more sensitive on grammar and the like than the "average" English speaker. It certainly predates my stint in Norway and probably even my stretch in the US. Perhaps I'm more aware of it here, particularly as learning Norwegian makes me focus on grammar and expression a little more than usual. The word "heuristic", however, scored highly because I recently finished reading Polya's book so it was embedded in my conciousness. I suspect that many people don't really know what it means, native or not, and tend to go along with Humpty-Dumpty:
When I use a word, it means exactly what I want it to mean. Nothing more, and nothing less.
Okay, to practicalities. Incidentally, one reason why I started a discussion rather than just changing it was that it entails changing the title (and, yes, the "heuristic introduction" was the main offender, but not the only one). On the "heuristic introduction" page:
Title: How about just "An introduction to ..."? The word "introduction" already conveys the sense of not being complete so nothing more is needed here.
"heuristic knowledge of topological spaces": either "basic" or "working" would work here.
"heuristic but useful idea": "basic" or "simple" would work, or just "useful idea" as the word "idea" conveys the "not technical" aspect that is wanted.
"the following is a heuristic way to understand this": again "basic" or "simple" here, I prefer "simple".
PS Tim: I used "mollify" intentionally. I wanted to convey the sense of changing a difficult term to an easier one. I wonder whether any non-native speakers would have picked up on the subtlety between "mollify" and "modify"?
I wasn't particularly waiting for someone else to edit the entries, though I guess that redirecting the "heuristic introduction" page might need "superuser" privileges. Just been a bit busy with other things, that's all.
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