On Thursday, October 25, 2018 at 12:46:48 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: > > > > On 10/25/2018 9:03 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: > > Now, when you say that there was no mathematics before writing, I am > > not sure. I think the incas have developed ways to compute (notably > > the position of the star in the sky) before writing. I think that > > arithmetic precede thought which precedes languages, and I can > > identify machines, words, numbers, finitely-describale-thing, as > > opposed to the meaning which are usually infinite, but will belong to > > the machines/numbers mind. > > People counted on their body parts, joints, fingers, etc long before > there was writing. They're called "digits" for a reason. > > Brent >
One can argue though that *arithmetic* came with writing (Sumeria): The Sumerians invented *arithmetic*.[12] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ancient_numeral_systems#cite_note-12> People who added and subtracted volumes of grain every day used their arithmetic skills to count other things that were unrelated to volume measurements. Multiplication and division were done with multiplication tables baked in clay tablets. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_ancient_numeral_systems - 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.
