Re: Mathematical Logic, Podnieks'page ...

From: Kory Heath <kory.heath.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Wed, 30 Jun 2004 13:38:43 -0400

At 09:19 AM 6/30/2004, Bruno Marchal wrote:
>Also, you said that your are not platonist. Could you tell me how you
>understand
>the proposition that the number seventeen is prime. (I want just be sure I
>understand
>your own philosophical hypothesis).

A quick aside: It might be better not to even use the term "platonist" in
these discussions, because it means at least two different things. It can
be used to refer to Plato's "essentialism" - the idea that there's a world
of Forms in which exists (for instance) the Ideal Horse, and all physical
horses represent imperfect copies of this Horse. This is certainly a more
elaborate belief than "mathematical realism" (or "arithmetical realism", or
"computational realism"). One can be a mathematical realist without being
an essentialist. I am. So some people would call me a Platonist, and some
wouldn't, but that's just a disagreement about a definition. I prefer just
to use the term "mathematical realism" or "essentialism", depending on what
I'm talking about.

-- Kory
Received on Wed Jun 30 2004 - 13:51:26 PDT