RE: Is there objective Truth?
October 18, 2016 at 11:00 am
(This post was last modified: October 18, 2016 at 11:01 am by Whateverist.)
(October 18, 2016 at 9:42 am)ChadWooters Wrote:(October 18, 2016 at 6:38 am)Aractus Wrote: Anyway, back to my point - Maths just like Money was invented.
If pi is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter in all possible worlds then it was discovered and not invented.
I confess I too find it irresistibly intuitive to think of mathematics as discovered rather than invented. But then I realize that the discoveries we make are always within a system of description which has already been invented. Mathematics doesn't float freeform in any idealistic medium independent of ourselves. It exists within an evolving mental view of the quantitive which answers to the way we perceive and talk about the world. The spectacular thing about mathematics is that within this construct it is possible to single out relationships previously not considered which turn out to have application back in the empirical world .. in spite of the fact that the model was not constructed with that aspect in mind. I think this is what drives the strong intuition which I share with you that mathematics is discovered, not invented. It is discovered .. albeit within the communally constructed model we've been fleshing out for many generations.