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Science And Math Was: Python's Lisp heritage

Andy Gimblett gimbo at ftech.net
Mon Apr 22 10:25:35 EDT 2002 
On Mon, Apr 22, 2002 at 07:35:26AM -0700, brueckd at tbye.com wrote:
> On Mon, 22 Apr 2002, Andy Gimblett wrote:
> > To put this another way, ask yourself where you stand on this
> > question: is mathematics discovered or invented?
> 
> Is there a difference?

Well, in the context of the debate, there is.  Perhaps you personally
don't believe there's any difference between inventing or discovering
maths, and hence that the debate is invalid, but there are others in
the world who disagree with you, believe the debate is a valid and
possibly important one, and may even go so far as to hold one of the
following to be true, and the other to be false:

Discovery: Mathematics is intrinsically "there" and "true" regardless
           of our intervention.  It's basically an empirical science,
           and is useful precisely because it represents reality
           directly and accurately.

Invention: We're making mathematics up as we go along and it bears no
           direct relation to actual reality.  It's useful because we
           construct it in such a way as to be useful, but to say our
           maths and only our maths is a proper reflection of reality
           is a monumental act of hubris upon our part.

I can't decide which I believe, or even which I want to believe.  :-)

> One could argue that the only difference between discovery and
> invention is the arrogance of the person reporting it.

Interesting point of view...  Unfortunately I can't decide whether you
mean claiming discovery is more arrogant, or claiming invention.  I'd
guess invented, though.  Which would make you a Platonist.  :-)

Cheers,

Andy

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Andy Gimblett - Programmer - Frontier Internet Services Limited
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