Numbers existed before people on this rock began to understand them. If not
number of atoms in the universe, then the number of cells in organisms one
day prior to 10,000 years ago. or anything really, that had the potential to
be counted, one day prior to 10,000 years ago.
If all numbers are
On 7/29/2010 3:28 PM, Mark Buda wrote:
Quantum mechanics suggests maybe not. If there were no conscious
observers to collapse the wave function of the universe after the big
bang, then what, pray tell, would constitute an atom that might be
counted?
This assumes that conscious observers are
Agreed, but I would point out that the answer to the question of the existence
of numbers is the truth value of a logical proposition about the ideas we call
number and existence. And if you bring a definition of number in terms of
other ideas such as successor, then you are simply restating
On 7/29/2010 4:03 PM, Mark Buda wrote:
Agreed, but I would point out that the answer to the question of the
existence of numbers is the truth value of a logical proposition about
the ideas we call number and existence.
What logical proposition would that be? A proposition like Every
number
Brent Meeker meeke...@dslextreme.com writes:
On 7/29/2010 4:03 PM, Mark Buda wrote:
Agreed, but I would point out that the answer to the question of the
existence of numbers is the truth value of a logical proposition about the
ideas we call number and existence.
What logical
On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 10:55 PM, Mark Buda her...@acm.org wrote:
Numbers exist not in any physical sense but in the same sense that any
idea exists - they exist in the sense that minds exist that believe
logical propositions about them. They exist because minds believe
logical propositions
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