Re: "basis for mathematics"

From: Still W. Bee (tomthethankengineyou_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 10/29/04 

Date: 29 Oct 2004 02:50:06 -0700

George Greene wrote:

As I am a complete novice, everything I say will surely come accross
as confused, so please, kindly, bear with me.

> > The "basis for mathematics" was never decided.
>
> Or even defined.
> How CAN there even BE such a thing as a "basis for mathematics"?
> Whatever you define this basis to be, IT'S going to need its OWN basis,
> foundation, defense, and justification, AS WELL.

I infer that the principles of all scientific discourse, namely, the
principle of identity, difference, contradiction and excluded middle
(being the principles of metaphysics) are not sufficient (I just
thought everything we know about this world is that it consists of
objects of which we know only that each is identical to itself and
different from others, plus there are different categories of
differences).

> You can't avoid an infinite regress of supporting justifications.

Thus it is insufficient to define an object via what the object is not
(to which, imho, we are condemned)?

> At some point you must -- basically arbitrarily, since by DEFINTION
> you CAN'T have any justifying CRITERIA or BASIS for deciding to stop
> "here" as opposed to elsewhere -- STOP, and say "EVEN though this isn't
> supported by any prior justifications or explanations, we're just STIPULATING
> that it's accepted". Rather than looking for a "this" that could
> serve as a "basis" for "math", mathematicians, almost by definition,
> are going to take MATH as that "this", as that basis.

I see.

:-)

Tom

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