On 15 June 2014 01:54, <[email protected]> wrote: > I have not attempted to correlate my theory with the thinking of Plato and > Aristotle. I would be happy to discuss this with you (my cell phone > number is 858-353-0997) or to consider your specific thoughts as to how my > theory relates to the thinking of these fellows. > > "Aristotelianism" is philosophical shorthand (so to speak) for theories which assume that matter/energy and space/time are "primitive", which means they cannot be explained by anything simpler. Aristotle thought that all that existed were "atoms and the void" which is still roughly what "materialist" scientists think (Brent may disagree with this, but from what I've read this appears to be the tacit assumption of the majority of physicists). The evidence for this view is mainly that it appears self-evidently true!
"Platonism" is shorthand for theories which assume that the universe is in some sense a reflection of some hidden underlying 'perfect forms" - the modern take on this, due to Max Tegmark and others, is that these perfect forms are mathematical structures. I don't pretend to know what this would mean in practice, although A. Garret Lisi <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Garrett_Lisi> attempted to produce a TOE <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Exceptionally_Simple_Theory_of_Everything>based on this idea (however, this hasn't stood up to scrutiny). Tegmark has suggested that the evidence for this view is that over the last 500 or so years, maths has been the "royal road to physical explanations" - there is nothing in physics which isn't maths plus what he calls "surplus baggage" - an interpretation of some underlying maths. Whether this has ontological significance is still unknown. -- 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/d/optout.
