Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: April 28, 2024, 3:54 pm

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Mathematicians who are finitists.
#72
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists.
(July 4, 2019 at 7:33 am)Jehanne Wrote: Do finistists accept the existence of irrational numbers?
I don't think so, at least not in the sense that everyone else does. The classic proof that a square's diagonal is incommensurable with its side looks finitistic to me, but that's not what a modern mathematician means by "the square root of 2 exists."

Still, it's not too shameful if the finitist position on the nature of incommensurable magnitudes is on par with the pre-moderns.

Quote:Just curious. I know that you may be playing the DA here.
I'm not. I'm not a finitist, but I see value in research in finitistic mathematics.

Modern finitism was started by David Hilbert who, as far as mathematicians goes, wasn't exactly a wally. So I don't think it is fairly compared to creationism. Hilbert regarded Cantor's mathematics as a "paradise", and insisted we would not be expelled from it, but he was also aware that it contained serious contradictions, as have the many other attempts to naively treat of infinite sets and higher order logic. Some might say that this business is inherently precarious and we should aim to build our mathematics on much more secure footing. Some say we should start with a world that is logically finite, and if some finitist shows that huge swathes of existing mathematics can be done this way, that's an awesome thing to know.
Reply



Messages In This Thread
Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 2, 2019 at 8:49 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Fireball - April 2, 2019 at 10:08 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 3, 2019 at 12:10 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Smaug - April 4, 2019 at 4:49 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 5, 2019 at 3:14 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Smaug - April 5, 2019 at 4:04 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by chimp3 - April 4, 2019 at 5:43 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Sal - April 5, 2019 at 3:55 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 6, 2019 at 9:26 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Smaug - April 6, 2019 at 4:33 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 6, 2019 at 10:46 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Smaug - April 7, 2019 at 1:49 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 7, 2019 at 3:52 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Smaug - April 7, 2019 at 5:25 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 8, 2019 at 6:08 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Little lunch - April 7, 2019 at 5:50 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 8, 2019 at 9:56 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Fireball - April 9, 2019 at 10:32 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by robvalue - April 9, 2019 at 6:18 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 9, 2019 at 6:54 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 9, 2019 at 9:46 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 10, 2019 at 8:42 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 10, 2019 at 8:59 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 11, 2019 at 10:48 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 11, 2019 at 11:09 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 11, 2019 at 11:24 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 11, 2019 at 2:13 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 11, 2019 at 3:33 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 11, 2019 at 3:39 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 11, 2019 at 5:17 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 14, 2019 at 7:15 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 14, 2019 at 9:31 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 14, 2019 at 12:07 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 14, 2019 at 1:38 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Fireball - April 9, 2019 at 10:03 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - April 9, 2019 at 11:05 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by robvalue - April 9, 2019 at 1:22 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Sal - April 9, 2019 at 9:28 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 9, 2019 at 9:44 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 15, 2019 at 9:58 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by LastPoet - April 15, 2019 at 12:32 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 15, 2019 at 5:06 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by LastPoet - April 16, 2019 at 12:58 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Fireball - April 16, 2019 at 3:25 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - April 16, 2019 at 5:43 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - June 29, 2019 at 6:44 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - June 30, 2019 at 12:03 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by LastPoet - June 30, 2019 at 1:30 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - June 30, 2019 at 3:34 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - July 1, 2019 at 2:02 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 2, 2019 at 7:50 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 2, 2019 at 11:36 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 2, 2019 at 11:29 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 3, 2019 at 11:51 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 3, 2019 at 10:06 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 4, 2019 at 7:33 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by A Toy Windmill - July 4, 2019 at 11:27 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - July 4, 2019 at 11:24 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Fireball - June 29, 2019 at 10:00 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by LastPoet - July 1, 2019 at 2:38 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - July 2, 2019 at 1:45 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 4, 2019 at 6:46 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 5, 2019 at 6:36 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 5, 2019 at 9:09 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - July 7, 2019 at 3:38 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 8, 2019 at 7:05 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 8, 2019 at 3:38 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 9, 2019 at 7:51 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - July 9, 2019 at 9:56 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - July 10, 2019 at 4:55 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 10, 2019 at 7:55 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - July 10, 2019 at 8:34 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 10, 2019 at 8:19 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - July 11, 2019 at 2:52 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 11, 2019 at 9:30 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by polymath257 - July 11, 2019 at 10:20 am
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by LastPoet - July 5, 2019 at 12:16 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 5, 2019 at 1:38 pm
RE: Mathematicians who are finitists. - by Jehanne - July 9, 2019 at 2:29 pm

Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Question for finitists -- 0.999... = 1? Jehanne 23 3221 November 26, 2022 at 8:40 pm
Last Post: Jehanne



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)