(March 6, 2017 at 3:27 pm)Nonpareil Wrote:(March 6, 2017 at 2:58 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Are some physical objects better instances of a triangle than others?
That depends on what you mean by "better".
If you simply mean that some objects meet the definition of "triangle" and others do not, then yes. This is not a value claim. Nor is it subjective. It is a simple matter of definition.
That is because it means something to be a triangle. The realist position is that triangles in some way actually exist, as mathematical objects. The question, and one that is certainly open to debate, is whether that idea can be extended. Does it mean something to be a chair? After all a chair with a broken leg is a much worse chair than one that is not broken. That seems like a pretty objective way to evaluate the 'value' of a chair. What about living things? Does it mean something to be a cat? Is a healthy Burmese tiger a better example of a cat than a one-eyed, three-legged alley cat with the mange? Cats are objects. To evaluate their degree of "catness" seems like a fairly reasonable undertaking. Hmmmm...interesting question, yes?
