Re: (OT) Re: Object identity


Dmitry A. Kazakov wrote:
On Wed, 28 Jun 2006 13:42:05 GMT, Gabriel Claramunt wrote:

Just a small off-topic comment:
I don't remember any way to make the square root of a negative number a real
number...

Note that your sentence betrays an aversion to wanting to treat numbers
as real in any sense whatsoever. You use words like "concept",
"notion", "abstracted". I suppose you say most numbers don't exist
because no one has written them down. I on the other hand am a
Platonist and don't lose any sleep over this, or force myself to
pollute my sentences with lots of additional but meaningless words to
indicate that numbers aren't real.

I consider that we are doing computer science here, and it is
ultimately a branch of (applied) mathematics. Your aversion to
treating numbers as real strikes me as a sure indicator that you are
lacing your arguments with metaphysical viewpoints that are outside the
scope of computer science.

Read Plato dialogs: you can't make it, you must remember it! (:-))

Plato is also silent about what happens with all things nobody can remember
of, and whether wrong things are real. Can anybody be *really* wrong? (:-))

I remember you said in another post "Platonism is the root of all evil"
(or something like that). What did you mean by that?

Formal systems with self-contradictions allow you to deduce that false
is true. Therefore you can prove that all statements are both true and
false. That just makes for a rather boring system. Does it exist?
Why not, but who cares.

All mathematicians are Platonists whether they admit it or not. A good
mathematician only says a thing doesn't exist when a proof is
furnished.


Cheers,
David Barrett-Lennard

.

Relevant Pages

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  • Re: Whats the name for this?
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