From: Simon Gordon (sim_dizzy@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Aug 12 2004 - 13:04:34 MDT
--- Samantha Atkins <sjatkins@gmail.com> wrote:
> Math is the abstraction of the way logically
coherent systems work. If it did not map well to the
> Universe then the Universe would be incoherent
> chaos. That it isn't doesn't make it permissible
to claim that such coherence itself is a manifestation
of the abstraction for expressing,
> capturing, manipulating coherent algorithms and
> relationships..
There are some semantic issues here: when someone
makes a statement like "the universe is a
manifestation of mathematics" they are talking about
mathematics as a noun. "Mathematics" in this case
should be read as "the platonic reality" or "the
domain of all abstract entities". It should be noted
that there are plenty of abstract entities which we
would not consider to be mathematical, but would
nevertheless be included in the ideal platonic domain.
Yes its hardcore platonism and i admire your zealous
doubt of it, but i think if you did a survey of
sl4ers, most would concurr that this is by far the
most intuitive way of philosophizing mathematics. To
see mathematics as simply an adjective, a process by
which humans analyse the reality around them, is to
underestimate the coherence of the world around us and
overestimate its distinctiveness amongst all possible
worlds.
Simon Gordon.
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