Chronology Current Month Current Thread Current Date
[Year List] [Month List (current year)] [Date Index] [Thread Index] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Prev] [Date Next]

Re: [Phys-L] nature +- observations +- models



Hmmmm. Is mathematics invented or discovered?

On Sun, Aug 28, 2016 at 11:08 AM, Richard Tarara <rtarara@saintmarys.edu>
wrote:

But only because our 'faith' in the mathematics that we have conjured up
is more wide-spread--so much so that we presume we could use it to
communicate with other intelligent life. But...is mathematics TRUTH?
[Euclidean Geometry?]

rwt


On 8/28/2016 6:27 AM, John Denker wrote:

On 08/27/2016 08:36 PM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:

Gödel's argument seems to be the philosophical equivalent to "turtles
all the way down".

Except for the part about being a philosophical argument.

If you find a philosophical argument to be surprising or unpleasant,
you are free to reject it. In contrast, Gödel's proof is an actual
mathematical proof. That's a lot harder to reject.

------

If nature does not answer first what we want,
it is better to take what answer we get.
Josiah Willard Gibbs
Lecture XXX, Monday, February 5, 1900
_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@www.phys-l.org
http://www.phys-l.org/mailman/listinfo/phys-l



--
Richard Tarara
Professor Emeritus
Saint Mary's College

free Physics educational software
http://sites.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html


_______________________________________________
Forum for Physics Educators
Phys-l@www.phys-l.org
http://www.phys-l.org/mailman/listinfo/phys-l