On 2/28/2020 5:56 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote:
On 28 Feb 2020, at 13:05, Philip Thrift <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Only Platonists jump to a belief that there is a ghostly world of
abstract entities called "numbers" that exists outside of matter
(whether that matter is your brain or your computer).
We don’t need this either. We need only to believe that 2+3 = 5, or
that phi_i(j) converges or not converges. The philosophy and
metaphysics come after.
If not, it is like studying the working of my brain to convince myself
that I understand correctly that 2+2=4. That does not work, because my
brain study is based on my belief that 2+2=4.
You could aswel say that Einstein’s theory is circular, because you
want to explain 2+2=4 with Matter, but Einstein’s theory use the
numbers, and assumes they do what they need to give sense to, say, E=
mc^2.
At some point, people have to put *all* the hypothesis on the table,
so that it is clear what is assumed, and what is derived.
That doesn't really help because it leaves open the relation between
what is assumed to be true and what is actually. That's why reasoning
that is not grounded in ostensive definitions and empirically tested is
just a game.
Brent
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