On 17/09/05, Bulat Ziganshin <bulatz@hotpop.com> wrote:
Hello Malcolm,
Friday, September 16, 2005, 11:32:02 PM, you wrote:
MW> What a strange choice of name for a language...! :-)
really, a word Monad derived by mathemathics from philosophy and esoteric
-- Best regards, Bulat mailto:bulatz@HotPOP.com
Recent mathematics apparently didn't take it from philosophy, that was supposedly more of a coincidence. Before the term was adopted, the triples <T,eta,mu> were variously referred to as "dual standard construction", "triple", "monoid", and "triad". The frequent use of the term "triple" was getting confusing for somewhat obvious reasons, so a portmanteau of "monoid" and "triad" was formed to get "monad". The philosophical use derives more directly from the greek word "monas" (unity), and is much older, having been found in Hellenistic Greek sources in reference to the doctrine of Pythagoras and other ancient philosophers. - Cale