On Tuesday, October 23, 2018 at 11:23:22 AM UTC-5, Bruno Marchal wrote: > > > > On 23 Oct 2018, at 04:30, Brent Meeker <[email protected] > <javascript:>> wrote: > > > > > > > > On 10/22/2018 6:54 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: > >> The mathematical reality has noting to do with languages, except that > languages are needed if machine/people want to share the results of their > exploration. > > > > So how do you prove theorems without a language? > > Of course, proving a theorem requires a theory, and a language. I was > saying (see the quote) that the *arithmetical reality* does not require a > language. > > The arithmetical reality does not require a language more than dinosaurs > needed the word “dinosaur” to exist. The prime character of 17 does not > need a mathematician to assert it, or to think about. > > To prove a theorem requires a theory, which requires a language. We can > only ope that our theory is in relation with truth, but the truth of 17 is > prime, assuming it true, does not need a proof to be true. A proof is > neither necessary, nor sufficient. The arithmetical reality is independent > of the big-bang. It is more plausible than an event like the big-bang > requires some part of the arithmetical reality. > > Bruno > >
People have debated (written books on) arithmetical or mathematical realism vs. fictionalism (and everything in between) until the cows come home (count them!), but here is something I found recently: https://twitter.com/philipthrift/status/1053537641420021761 It's about the Sumerian goddess Nisaba who turned out to be the goddess of both writing and counting/arithmetic. (There was no mathematics before writing.) - pt -- 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 https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
