Quentin Anciaux wrote:
> Le Vendredi 18 Août 2006 17:02, 1Z a écrit :
> > Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> > > Peter Jones writes:
> > > > > What's the difference?
> > > >
> > > > Things that exist are available for causal interaction. Numbers aren't.
> > >
> > > What could it possibly mean for numbers to "exist" in the sense you claim
> > > they do not? Could I be mugged by a burly number 6 in a dark alley? I
> > > don't think that even number-worshipping Pythagoras would have
> > > entertained such a notion.
> >
> > It is for Pythagorenas and Platonists to explain what they mean by
> > "exist".
>
> I think it has been said several times :
>
> The existence of a number/arithmetical proposition is the fact that its
> existence/truth does not depend on the fact that you exist/that it exists
> conscious beings capable of thinking of it.
That is an explanation of mind-independence, not of existence.
The anti-Platonist (e.g. the formalist) can claim that
the truth of mathematical statments is mind-independent,
but their existence isn't.
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Received on Fri Aug 18 2006 - 11:40:37 PDT