I think it is safe to say that humans really like the number three. It comes back again and again, in science, relgion, literature and art. Our predilection for (or even obsession with) certain numbers is easily explanable: we have a decimal numeric system because we have ten fingers, the number two is important to us because our bodies are bilaterally symmetrical and because there are two sexes (which is presumably somehow linked to the fact that we tend to think in terms of opposites such as yin and yang, right and wrong).
But what about the number three? Could it be a reflection of the fact that each human child is the product of a mother and father (which, I can't help thinking, is very similar to Hegel's creation of three-ness from two-ness: Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis). Or is it perhaps more closely linked to the fact that space consists of three dimensions? Or both the same time?
Whatever the case, it is clear that I also suffer from numberitis, because while writing this entry I realised that there are three types of threes (or triads, or trios).
But what about the number three? Could it be a reflection of the fact that each human child is the product of a mother and father (which, I can't help thinking, is very similar to Hegel's creation of three-ness from two-ness: Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis). Or is it perhaps more closely linked to the fact that space consists of three dimensions? Or both the same time?
Whatever the case, it is clear that I also suffer from numberitis, because while writing this entry I realised that there are three types of threes (or triads, or trios).
1
One type of trio consists of elements that are different but of comparable value, such as the Roman Catholic virtues Faith, Hope, and Charity, the three sources of power: violence, wealth, and information (Alvin Toffler), the three spatial dimensions, triptychs, the three witches in William Shakespeare's Macbeth, the three musketeers, the three stooges, the three rings for the elven kings (The Lord of the Rings), the rock-paper-scissors game, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly etc.
2
The second type consists of similar elements that succeed either other in a chronological order, such as the first, second and thirds acts of plays, most trilogies, the three stages of society (the agrarian, industrial and the post-industrial (again Toffler)), the 1-2-3's of so many self-help guides, and the fact that in many fairy tales, the hero has to try three times before succeeding (a pattern which is repeated in many jokes).
3
In the third type, there are differences in aspect, degree, or quality, such as Heaven, Hell and Purgatory, degrees of comparison (good - better - best, or, in software evaluation terms, must have - should have - nice to have), and protons, neutrons, and electrons. This category includes The Three Bears and The Three Little Pigs – you might think they are equal, but the main point of the story is that they are not.
The title of this entry, in case you were wondering, comes from a Genesis album - their first album as a trio.
(And the thing that prompted me to write is was a recent comment quoting Eleanor Roosevelt.)
(And the thing that prompted me to write is was a recent comment quoting Eleanor Roosevelt.)
On reading that three is an important number
ReplyDeleteWhere would our best traditions be
If ‘Tea for two’ were stretched to three?
Goodbye to romance, like as not
And ‘Waiter, please a larger pot!’
Imagine all the extra fuss
Of ‘we for her and she for us’
‘Where will it stop? I muse aloud,
‘Three is company, four a crowd’?
Maybe we like the number three because it is the highest number we can recognise without counting. When there are four or five apples in a basket, we need a split second to count them. When there are three of them, we simply can *see* they are three.
ReplyDeleteI think the number three makes us feel safe.
Interesting point, but I read somewhere that we can actually recognise up to 7 items immediately (obviously, I will need to write on that number as well, it being another one of those "magical" numbers).
ReplyDeleteAs for it making us feel safe: I couldn't agree more. We might have to stand on two legs, but imagine how much more stable we would stand with three? (Evolution really missed a trick there).