On 24 January 2014 16:08, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > On 1/23/2014 5:46 PM, LizR wrote: > > On 24 January 2014 14:40, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I'd say a finitist form of arithmetic is a good description of some >> aspects of reality - but don't try to add raindrops or build Hilbert's >> Hotel. >> >> OK. So are there some fundamental aspects of reality that can't be > described by mathematics? > > > Probably not. Or it might depend on how complete a description is > required (notice that not all true sentences of arithmetic can be > described). Mathematics is just axiomatized language, a way of making > sentences definite and avoiding self-contradicition. There might be > something that can only be described fuzzily; poets have lots of > candidates. Maybe consciousness is one. But it's like asking is there > something science can't investigate. Maybe, but we won't know without > trying. >
It's just that so far, after about 500 years, we haven't managed to find *anything* that looks remotely fundamental to the operation of the universe that can't be described to fairly high precision by maths. I guess this is what has led some people to wonder if there's more to it than just "a way of making sentences definite and avoiding self-contradicition". (I guess other people think we cherry pick the stuff that's mathy, and there are vast swathes of non-mathematical stuff out there just waiting to be discovered...) -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
