Who is Behind This?
How nice to meet you! I am a 21-years-old guy originally from Plovdiv, Bulgaria. I went to an US high school called the American College of Sofia, the first American school outside of the US :), before I crossed the pond back in August 2022 to arrive in the great state of New Hampshire. I am a Math major at Dartmouth College and I am also studying Computer Science and Classics (it is not yet clear whether any of those will become a full major or will stay a minor). I am also interested in Quantitative Finance and Philosophy, especially Philosophy of Math and Epistemology. Some of my favorite philosophers include Plato, Descartes, and Bertrand Russell.
Originally, I was supposed to study Math and Philosophy. I took one Phil course and I loved it. I took another and I hated it. So that’s that (as you’ll soon discover determination and perseverance are not my strongest suits at all). I still love the subject and might actually be about to do some research in it quite soon. In terms of 20th and 21st century philosophy trends though I have a vividly strong preference for analytic philosophy, so I’m afraid I don’t know a thing about many of the famous continental folks from that period… In terms of Philosophy of Math, I am a Platonist, and I’m also a rationalist but more in the sense of Frege and Russell than in the one of say Leibniz. And I definitely don’t agree with Kant on his epistemic views. I’m also in the free-will camp. I’m also a Platonist when it comes to the problem of universals although I prefer properties to Platonic forms.
Back to Math, my primary focus is logic and foundations (not necessarily set theory :). A fun story about me is that I took my culminating experience for my Math major in my freshman winter (and I aced it!). Turned out that the Dartmouth honors logic course satisfies the requirement but I took it out of interest, so it kinda worked out coincidentally. I am particularly interested in consistency and systems that can show their own consistency. These are usually very weak. You can’t multiply things most of the time. Not many practical applications either… I also like most discrete subjects from combinatorics and probability to graph theory. I am not a fan of geometry and topology and I prefer algebra to analysis. I do like some more applied stuff though be it on the rare occasion. I took a two-terms sequence of courses about options trading covering the BS equation, Ito calculus, exotic options, non-constant rates, and other stuff.
I started learning Ancient Greek in early 2024. I took an intensive one-term two-credits course in my sophomore spring and am about to take another course in my junior fall. In the Spring, we read mostly fables and some adapted snippets from Plato, Lysias, Xenophon, and others. I also took part in an extracurricular group where we read Koine rather than Attic. We read the entire James and moved on to read a section from Matthew (The Sermon on the Mount). Right now (Summer 2024) I’m reading Book 1 of the Nicomachean Ethics with a professor outside of class just for fun. In the Fall, my class will read some unadapted Lysias and Plato.
I’m also a big Anglophile. Basically, you can always be at least 95% certain that I’m going to concur with whatever the British are doing right now. A staunch monarchist, a Tory at heart (if not always one in practice) and a lover of everything British. I adore English literature, from Milton to Stoppard and from Chaucer to Christie and from University Challenge to the Bake Off. Somewhat coincidentally my favorite composer is Handel and my favorite painter is Turner (though this one is closely contested with a German guy). I do mix up US and UK spellings though, it just depends on the mood…
Some of my favorite stuff: The Harry Potter Series, King Lear, High Church Anglicanism, Pokémon, Arcadia, Matcha-based drinks, Keeping up Appearances, and many many more.
Last, a few notes on my first name, Atanas (Атанас). It comes from the Greek Athanasios (Αθανάσιος) meaning immortal. It is a not too common, not too rare Bulgarian name. The stress is on the last syllable and all the vowels are short. Many of my American friends have some trouble pronouncing it, so I’m writing this hoping they don’t worry about it. I love all the different pronunciations people come up with and am more annoyed about insisting people pronounce it the Bulgarian way than making a fun face for a moment after I hear a new variation. That being the case I occasionally use Nas when I want to make sure people can pronounce it and they insist on respecting the original pronunciation. I may try legally switch the transliteration of my name into the Latin alphabet to include an ‘h’ (Athanas) both to respect the Greek origin and to make it a bit more relatable to non-Bulgarians. If I do, I may start going by Athan (another Greek variation) which I like to pronounce with an “ei” diphthong at the start in English.
This blog is going to be about the many stuff I like and the many stuff I don’t. It will probably contain mostly short random thought pieces but I will also try to write some longer more informative stuff from time to time.