Science And Math Was: Python's Lisp heritage

[Tim Daneliuk]

Laura Creighton wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, Apr 22, 2002 at 12:57:38PM +0100, Gon?alo Rodrigues wrote:
> >
> > > You should understand that this is a philosophical viewpoint. The
> > > mathematical field is roughly divided in the Platonist field, those who
> > > believe that mathematical objects exist somewhere out there in space (to
> > > quote Sun Ra) in a Wonderful World of Platonic Ideas, and the formalist
> > > field of those who believe mathematics is essentialy a game we play on
> > > paper with symbols with no "real" meaning attached to it besides the
> > > convenience in describing natural phenomena.
> >
> > To put this another way, ask yourself where you stand on this
> > question: is mathematics discovered or invented?
> >
> > -Andy
> 
> Those aren't the only two choices out there.  From the 'saving your
> cake and eating it too department' -- All mathematics is
> invented, but the human mind is only capable of inventing things that
> in some way correspond to 'things out there' (whatever that means,

Yeah, there is an analagous argument for the existence of God called
the 'ontological argument' that more-or-less  says 'since you can
conceive the notion of God, he must exist in some form'.  Now I'm
a theist, but I think this argument is baloney both in mathematics
and theology.  I can conceive any number of things for which there
is no correspondent in the physical universe: flying donkeys, unearned
wealth, honest politicians, and so on.  In other words, I claim you
can always conceive more than that which is real which is why mathematics
is primarily a contruct not a discovery.



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Tim Daneliuk
tundra at tundraware.com