On 11 Apr 2013, at 17:41, Roger Clough wrote:
The Taboo of Platonism
Ask most mathematicians if they believe that
they invent new theorems or discover them.
If they discover those truths, then there is a pre-existing
Platonic realm of mathematical truth to which they naturally have
access.
But if you aski them afterwards uif they believe that there
is a pre-existing Platonic realm in which mathematics exists,
they will deny it for the most part.
Because it is taboo to admit to the existence of
a Platonic realm.
This is because they want the philosophy staying obvious (for them)
and implicit.
Then "platonic realm" can be a quite vague expression. Most
mathematicians believe that most arithmetical truth is independent of
them, but much less so will accept such independence for analysis or
set theory.
It is not platonism which is the taboo. It is philosophy, theology,
and for some, even physics and applied sciences.
I made a conference on the application of modal logic in computer
science. A pure mathematician, who did not assist but hear about it
told me: "let modal logic for the philosophers and let computers for
engineers, please do math".
(I followed the option "pure math" because only that option provided a
course in logic, and I believed in applied logic, but "applied
mathematics" was already quite a taboo, for some of those "pure
mathematicians").
The number theorist Hardy, which I love so much his books and papers,
keep bragging being so proud working in a branch having no
applications at all. He would not have been happy today, because
number theory got *many* applications now.
Some lives in Ivory Tower, and really dislike the idea that there is
something outside ...
Well, nobody is perfect (but don't tell them :)
Bruno
- Roger Clough
Dr. Roger Clough NIST (ret.) 4/11/2013
http://team.academia.edu/RogerClough
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