RE: Reflections on Nothing.
February 17, 2016 at 6:46 am
(February 16, 2016 at 10:10 pm)Jehanne Wrote: (February 16, 2016 at 8:47 am)Excited Penguin Wrote: Mathematics are a product of the human mind, not the other way around. I don't think you mean what I think you mean, so I won't press this any further, but do consider putting it differently.
I have no idea how you can say this. In a right triangle, does the square of the hypotenuse equal the sums of the squares of its two sides? Is that true or not? And, if you say that such is only a "product of the human mind," when did this truth (if, it is, true) come into being? Are you saying that the planets of our solar system started going around the Sun in ellipses only after Kepler discovered those orbits? If so, what were the planets doing prior to Kepler & Galileo?
Quote:I have no idea how you can say this.
Because our knowledge of the world is imperfect and your claim that mathematics is metaphysical in nature is as old as Ancient Greek Philosophy and it has found no justification in science, as far as I know.
Quote:In a right triangle, does the square of the hypotenuse equal the sums of the squares of its two sides? Is that true or not?
I don't know.
Quote:And, if you say that such is only a "product of the human mind," when did this truth (if, it is, true) come into being?
When the first brain started thinking about it.
Quote:Are you saying that the planets of our solar system started going around the Sun in ellipses only after Kepler discovered those orbits?
Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying. To claim otherwise is illogical.
Quote: If so, what were the planets doing prior to Kepler & Galileo?
They "did" whatever we thought they were doing. Their motions as we currently understand them weren't discovered as yet.
