Judy posted an interesting question for a change: > > I wonder if it's possible for two philosophers to > have an argument (or just a conversation) using > only mathematical formulations, no words.
I can cast third-hand hearsay evidence on this question. At least on the "having a conversation" issue. My grandfather worked with Albert Einstein on the Manhattan Project, as did most of the other high- level physicists in the US at the time. They would occasionally get together in one of the classrooms of Princeton University, alone, and just jackpot ideas. My father describes my grandfather describing hours-long "conversations" in which neither of them said a word. One would just scribble an unfinished equation on one of the many blackboards in the room, and then step back and wait for the other to "comment" on it. Sometimes the comment was another, slightly differ- ent equation. Sometimes it was a correction to a mistake in the original equation. Rarely -- and to be celebrated -- there was a solution to the equation. They celebrated by going out for ice cream. Sure sounds like a conversation to me, but not much of an "argument." There's a difference.
