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Interesting how all comments are about the question in the title, and not about the post itself, which is more about the subtle nuances of English words. In my

Interesting how all comments are about the question in the title, and not about the post itself, which is more about the subtle nuances of English words. In my opinion, maze vs. labyrinth was way more interesting than morals vs ethics. Also, read the article, please, makes discussion better than just limiting oneself to the title only.

ckcheng 3y ago
> maze vs. labyrinth was way more interesting The article says the Minotaur myth’s labyrinth was “obviously a maze”, but I doubt it. In the myth, Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of thread (a clew) on the advice of Daedalus, the creator of the labyrinth [1]. And “Theseus followed Daedalus' instructions given to Ariadne: go forwards, always down, and never left or right” [3] "till he found the Minotaur asleep in the inmost recess" [2]. Getting a "clew" instead of a map from the labyrinth's creator makes me think it's likely symbolic... or that Daedalus expected Theseus to do a DFS search? Plus the “clew” wasn't strictly needed, since reversing those instructions for finding the Minotaur would've got him out again. That makes me think the Minotaur was trapped in a proper single-path labyrinth. Of course it’s just interpretation, and some think differently [4], which makes this way more interesting! [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theseus#Theseus_and_the_Minotaur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theseus#Theseus_and_the_Minota... [2]: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022:text=Epitome:book=E:chapter=1&highlight=daedalus#note9 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:19... [3]: https://www.hellenic.org.au/post/theseus-and-the-minotaur-the-man-the-myth-and-the-science https://www.hellenic.org.au/post/theseus-and-the-minotaur-th... [4]: Like here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth#cite_ref-5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth#cite_ref-5 . But note the book it cites, from my reading of it, actually says something more nuanced and subject to interpretation.
add-sub-mul-div 3y ago
[flagged]
dang 3y ago
Good point and I think we can mitigate it by taking both morals and ethics out of the title above. Thanks!
barfbagginus 3y ago
I felt that maze/labyrinth bit was disingenuous, since the sense in which labyrinth is a winding path is more of an old religious one, but the common sense of the word is synonymous with maze, and so are some ancient uses, like the minotaur myth. If we're being honest, the article contents were imprecise rambling crap, rather than useful reflections on language. That's why we're reflecting on the actually interesting title question, imo.
araes 3y ago
> maze vs. labyrinth And from a math perspective, they don't need to be any different. A simplistic 2D line maze / labyrinth like those shown can have all the same features, just shaped differently. Secondary false routes, merging alternate routes, shape features designed to disguise routes, routes that loop back to the main route. And the center is effectively the same as reaching the opposite side. As long as routes do not cross, not sure if there's any known features that cannot be implemented in both topologies. That's too far off in math professor land. Notably, Wikipedia appears to agree that most scholars seem to view the idea that a labyrinth is supposed to be the word for a single path puzzle, vs a maze that has any form of "trickiness". There's also a lot of the cultural issues, the article doesn't really touch on. That it's supposed to be relaxing, except most mythological labyrinths were "murder the monsters" or "murder the pyramid looters".
- bjourne 3y ago
  You can't represent disconnected edges as a single-path. So a maze can have features not implementable as a labyrinth.
HR01 3y ago
I gather someone changed the title which is actually a shame since now fewer people will read it.

ckcheng 3y ago

> maze vs. labyrinth was way more interesting The article says the Minotaur myth’s labyrinth was “obviously a maze”, but I doubt it. In the myth, Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of thread (a clew) on the advice of Daedalus, the creator of the labyrinth [1]. And “Theseus followed Daedalus' instructions given to Ariadne: go forwards, always down, and never left or right” [3] "till he found the Minotaur asleep in the inmost recess" [2]. Getting a "clew" instead of a map from the labyrinth's creator makes me think it's likely symbolic... or that Daedalus expected Theseus to do a DFS search? Plus the “clew” wasn't strictly needed, since reversing those instructions for finding the Minotaur would've got him out again. That makes me think the Minotaur was trapped in a proper single-path labyrinth. Of course it’s just interpretation, and some think differently [4], which makes this way more interesting! [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theseus#Theseus_and_the_Minotaur https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theseus#Theseus_and_the_Minota... [2]: http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0022:text=Epitome:book=E:chapter=1&highlight=daedalus#note9 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:19... [3]: https://www.hellenic.org.au/post/theseus-and-the-minotaur-the-man-the-myth-and-the-science https://www.hellenic.org.au/post/theseus-and-the-minotaur-th... [4]: Like here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth#cite_ref-5 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labyrinth#cite_ref-5 . But note the book it cites, from my reading of it, actually says something more nuanced and subject to interpretation.

add-sub-mul-div 3y ago

[flagged]

dang 3y ago

Good point and I think we can mitigate it by taking both morals and ethics out of the title above. Thanks!

barfbagginus 3y ago

I felt that maze/labyrinth bit was disingenuous, since the sense in which labyrinth is a winding path is more of an old religious one, but the common sense of the word is synonymous with maze, and so are some ancient uses, like the minotaur myth. If we're being honest, the article contents were imprecise rambling crap, rather than useful reflections on language. That's why we're reflecting on the actually interesting title question, imo.

araes 3y ago

> maze vs. labyrinth And from a math perspective, they don't need to be any different. A simplistic 2D line maze / labyrinth like those shown can have all the same features, just shaped differently. Secondary false routes, merging alternate routes, shape features designed to disguise routes, routes that loop back to the main route. And the center is effectively the same as reaching the opposite side. As long as routes do not cross, not sure if there's any known features that cannot be implemented in both topologies. That's too far off in math professor land. Notably, Wikipedia appears to agree that most scholars seem to view the idea that a labyrinth is supposed to be the word for a single path puzzle, vs a maze that has any form of "trickiness". There's also a lot of the cultural issues, the article doesn't really touch on. That it's supposed to be relaxing, except most mythological labyrinths were "murder the monsters" or "murder the pyramid looters".

bjourne 3y ago
You can't represent disconnected edges as a single-path. So a maze can have features not implementable as a labyrinth.

HR01 3y ago

I gather someone changed the title which is actually a shame since now fewer people will read it.