Re: Philosophy vs. science

Posted by glen ep ropella on Jul 12, 2011; 2:44pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Philosophy-vs-science-tp6573103p6575346.html

Nicholas Thompson wrote at 07/11/2011 05:58 PM:
> But before I say why -- again -- could you tell me how (if?) you think
> mathematics is different from science.

Don't bother saying it again.  I read, understood, and agree with what
you've posted.  Similarly, I've already posted what I think philosophy
is and how it's different from math.  But perhaps you didn't see it due
to the mailing list problems.  So, here it is again:

Philosophy is to math as it is to any other discipline.  Introspective
mathematicians will sporadically engage in philosophy in order to sort
and arrange the fundamental concepts of their discipline ... just like a
chair maker will engage in philosophy to sort out the fundamental issues
of chair making.

Philosophy is _obvious_ when discussing he fundamentals of any
discipline.  The paper I asked people like Owen and Doug to comment on:

   http://phil.elte.hu/leszabo/Preprints/MG-LESz-rp_preprint-v5.pdf

seems to be doing that.  It's clearly a philosophy paper trying to deal
with some fundamental physical principles.  There are plenty of similar,
philosophical, papers dealing with the foundations of math.  As with any
discipline, the closer to the center you get, the more philosophy you
see.  It's true that some mathematicians, perhaps even most, spend their
whole lives wandering around the outer layers, never considering the
fundamentals.  But many of us, from musician to ditch digger, agree with
Socrates/Plato that:

"Perhaps someone might say: But Socrates, if you leave us you will not
be able to live quietly, without talking?  Now this is the most
difficult point on which to convince some of you.  If I say that it is
impossible for me to keep quiet because that means disobeying the god,
you will not believe me and will think I am being ironical.  On the
other hand, if I say that it is the greatest good for a man to discuss
virtue every day and those other things about which you hear me
conversing and testing myself and others, for the unexamined life is not
worth living for man, you will believe me even less."

That's why I prefer plumbers who have a philosophy of plumbing over the
lazy yahoo who just wants to get paid and go home to watch American Idol
or play XBox. ;-)

--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://tempusdictum.com


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