--- Leon Kuunders <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Jim D.: 'math that we use [is] psychological'. > > I probably missed it, but in which realm does this > math we don't use exist?
Platonists would say that numbers and the relations between exist independently of us in something like the way that distant galaxies do, or this one did before we were here. These are abstract entities, not physical objects, so it's no use looking for them on Alpha Centuri. We know them by doing maths. This no more strange than saying that lots of stuff we can't observe exists. Subatomic particles, for example. The unconscious mind. And while I sympathise with the intuition that says that there can't be nonphysical entities, I don't think that's an a priori truth. Btw a lot of physuical entities and relations are muchs tranger than almost anything you can find in mathematics. Let me tell you about Bell's Theorem sometime. jks __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Address AutoComplete - You start. We finish. http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
