Bruno Marchal wrote: > > On 17 Aug 2009, at 11:11, 1Z wrote: > >> Without Platonism, there is no UD since it is not observable within >> physical space. So the UDA is based on Plat., not the other way >> round. > > > Are you saying that without platonism, the square root of 2 does not > exist? Prime number does not exist? That mathematical existence is a > meaningless notion? > > Mathematics would be a physical illusion? > > But physics use mathematics, would that not make physics illusory or > circular?
I think of numbers as part of our descriptive models. We (along with our evolution) invented them). Mathematical existence is only meaningful in the sense that some mathematical object follows from axioms. Descriptions are not illusory if they model something in reality. The number 2 models pairs of things in the world, but a model is not the thing. Pairing things by similarity or function or color is done by abstracting away the particularities. Brent --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
