4 ms·

Is it just me, or do cranks in mathematics seem more coherent than those of other fields?

• tzs 9y ago
  There are two kinds of "cranks" in math and science: 1. People who are flat out nuts. Their understanding of the field is broadly wrong on many different levels. 2. People who have a good understanding of the field, but disagree with specific things that are widely accepted by mainstream practitioners. In all but that area where they disagree, they often are accomplished respected practitioners with perfectly "normal" books and papers to their credit. These areas of disagreement are often down in the foundations of mathematics, such as over what axioms to accept, or how to construct mathematical systems. There are often multiple ways you can axiomatize and construct mathematical systems that provide everything we normally need for most or all applications of mathematics, so often both sides in these disagreements end up with mathematical systems that are equally useful from the point of view of everyone who is not working in the foundations of mathematics. You could have type 2 cranks in science fields outside mathematics, but I think it is much less likely than in mathematics. Those fields tend to deal with things that objectively be proven or disproven. You usually only get "coherent cranks" in those fields when a major change in how we understand something is happening.