Bruno Marchal wrote: > > Le 12-août-06, à 03:00, David Nyman a écrit : > > >>Bruno Marchal wrote: >> >> >>>If grandmother asks for recalling the main difference between Plato >>>and >>>Aristotle's theories of matter, I would just say that in Plato, the >>>visible (observable, measurable) realm is taken as appearances or >>>shadows related to a deeper unknown reality. >> >>A question from grandma: >> >>Since this deeper, unknown reality must forever be inaccessible to our >>direct probing, I agree when you suggest that this may better be >>thought of as theology, or at least metaphysics. This grandma, for one, >>can't find any *literal* meaning in the independent existence of Number >>in a Platonic realm (though Penrose believes in something of the sort, >>as did Popper), but it does convey a metaphorical or poetic sense. > > > Perhaps the grandma put to much sense in "Number exists in a platonic > realm". > As I explained to 1Z, Arithmetical realism (part of comp) needs only > the belief in the independence of some truth (independence with respect > to me, you, ...). It only mean that "there is a perfect number (which > are sum of their proper divisor)" is either true or false independently > of me. > It just means that I (Bruno) believes that Bruno (I) is not so > important in the sense that if I die, a perfect number will still > either exist or not exist. I do interpret Penrose's mathematical > platonism in that way, and I agree with him (on that), like I think > david Deutsch and other physicists (but not all!).
But how must the perfect number exist or not exist? You say you only mean it must be true that there is a number equal to the sum of its divsors independent of you. Do you mean independent only in the sense that others will know 6 is perfect after you're gone, or do you mean 6 is perfect independent of all humans, all intelligent beings, the whole world? Brent Meeker --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
