Re: What is mathematics? Really?
Posted by
Nick Thompson on
Jul 28, 2008; 5:04am
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/What-is-mathematics-Really-tp584997p586100.html
Sorry, as usual, I buggered my question:
"Does anybody know who it was or from what point of view they were speaking when they referred to mathematics as "neutral" between idealism and realism"
n
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 7/27/2008 1:28:59 PM
Subject: RE: [FRIAM] What is mathematics? Really?
The answers is that it depends.
The answer is NO, unless C has a gun pointed at A, then the answer is YES.
;-) - Jan
I have Hersh's book, now, and have been reading around in it. It brought to mind the following question.
How is it that we know that, If A belongs to B, and B belongs to C, than A belongs to C. Does it come from our experience? Or does it come from our language, or neural organization, or something else about us. Or, as Rosen might have it, it is the result of mapping the latter upon the former in some way.
Around the turn of the centrury, there were some people who argued that the answer to all the previous questions was No. Mathematics, logic, etc. stood between thse two other ways of knowing, which were identified with realism and idealism. These folks (possibliy including russell) believed that math belong to a short list of mental thingies that were "neutral" to the distinction between realism and idealism.
can anybody remember what these family of neutral things was called or who called them "neutral"?
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
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