So, before there were humans, 2+2 did not = 4? There were no twos or fours? Nine was not the number of the planets?
Btw this makes utter nonsense of our best physical and biological theories of the world. So these entities are not dispensible, and Occam sez, keep 'em. jks --- Eubulides <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "andie nachgeborenen" > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > > I don't see what is so problematic about the idea of > abstract entities. The world is full of weird > entities > that it is useful to posit -- that is, to say that > they exist. Classes. Quarks (those are physical, but > strange). Meanings. Minds. Why not numbers? But if > we > say that they exist, at least in my book, we mean > it, > it's not "as if," it's not pretend. I know some > people > have an urge -- Ive had it myself -- to make > everything explicable in physical terms. But that's > a > metaphysical prejudice. Why does everything have to > be > physical? > > jks > > > ==================== > > Occam's razor drives a lot of it. > > Should we say that the English language existed > before human beings, or > the Chinese language? These are as abstract as the > language of mathematics > and we have no way of determining, with > language/symbols, whether > mathematics has non-linguistic/non-symbolic > properties of any kind. If we > can explain the emergence of the English or Chinese > language via a > contemporary and future cosmology and theory of > biological evolution [esp. > neuroscience] without resorting to a dualist or > pluralist metaphysics, why > shouldn't we be able to do the same with > mathematics? I don't get the > 'indispensibility' argument for Platonism in math > simply because it > doesn't seem to cohere well with what we know about > ourselves as a result > of evolutionary biology. I'm not asserting that we > 'need' a reductionist > cosmology/metaphysics, just that we don't need to > think of mathematics as > preexisting/older than humans in some > metaspatial-temporal.....what, > exactly? > > Htbw, > > Ian > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
