Posted by
Owen Densmore on
Apr 26, 2009; 7:41pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/The-Unreasonable-Effectiveness-of-Mathematics-in-the-Natural-Sciences-tp2714601p2719044.html
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
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
http://www.friam.org