On Apr 26, 2009, at 10:16 AM, Steve Smith wrote:
Well said/observed David, I too am a Lakoff/Johnson/Nunez fan in
this matter.
While I am quite enamored of mathematics and it's fortuitous
application to all sorts of phenomenology, Physics being somehow the
most "pure" in an ideological sense, I've always been suspicious of
the conclusion that "the Universe *is* Mathematics".
OK: Show how it is not, then.
This discussion also begs the age-old question of whether we are
"inventing" or "discovering" mathematics.
No it doesn't. We are discovering it. We are slowly becoming wise.
We are uncovering the Structure of Everything. We are peaking under
the Rug. God is one smart dude.
Similarly, it revisits the question of whether discoveries in
mathematics portend discoveries in Physics (or other, "messier"
phenomenological observations).
They are independent. That's the wonder to which the subject refers.
-- Owen
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