From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_20,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 109fba,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid109fba,public X-Google-Thread: 103376,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Thread: 1014db,1042f393323e22da X-Google-Attributes: gid1014db,public From: Craig Franck Subject: Re: Off topic response to an off topic message--> was:Re: Software Engineering and Dreamers Date: 1997/06/04 Message-ID: <5n2csg$1c6@mtinsc04.worldnet.att.net>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 245942395 References: <5m57nu$7si@bcrkh13.bnr.ca><5mcp5o$ei7$3@news.cc.ucf.edu> <5md1fl$9f4@bcrkh13.bnr.ca><5mmvgj$61k@squire.cen.brad.ac.uk> <01bc7042$609289e0$cb61e426@DCorbit.solutionsiq.com> <33947E2F.3F1A31A7@fuller.com> Organization: AT&T WorldNet Services Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.c,comp.lang.ada Date: 1997-06-04T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: "H. Blakely Williford" wrote: >Dann Corbit wrote: >> (Vibrating Bum-Faced Goats) writes: >> > >> > > Mathematics exists in the mind alone. > >can you look at a sun rise and say this? > >the way the particles in the upper atmosphere refract the light? You are not helping the cause any. Color arises from how are brains process light, and does not exist independently of our perceiving it. Because of this, it is clearly only in our minds even more than math is. I think Mr. Goats point can be made clearer once you realize that math is about symbols and how you can transform them into one another. "2 + 2 = 4" seems to be expressing a relationship of some sort that exists externally in nature, but what it means and how we interpret is actually quite close to how we process langauge. You wouldn't say English exists in nature, and is not solely the product of our brains, just because you can point to a big leafy green thing and say "tree". It is not like the word "tree" was laying about, just waiting to be discovered, any more than the symbol "2" was. In this sense (and in many others as well) math is a product of our brains. -- Craig clfranck@worldnet.att.net Manchester, NH I don't pretend to understand the universe, it is a great deal bigger than I am. -- Thomas Carlyle