Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science

From: Albert Wagner (albertwagner_at_cox.net)
Date: 03/17/05 

Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2005 19:36:37 -0600

robert j. kolker wrote:
>
>
> Tony Orlow (aeo6) wrote:
>
>>
>> Except that unbounded is the same as "without end". That's what
>> "infinite" literally means.
>
>
> Will you stop confusing your sloppy use of everyday language with
> precise technical definitions. The word "infinite" has several distinct
> meanings (in a mathematical context) and this has been pointed out to
> repeatedly. Mathematics has a technical vocabulary which bears a
> conincidental similarity to common usage. In the common lexicon
> "infinite" means something like "indefnite". "Finite" in the common
> lexicon is approximately the same as "definite".
>
> Our discussion from the very beginning has been about the mathematical
> context, not about common usage.

You can't crosspost to a philosophical NG and demand control of
context and word usage. If such is important to you, then keep
it to yourself until you are safely inside you private Hilbert
Space with your peers. 

-- 
"I consider it quite possible that physics cannot be based
on the field concept, i. e., on continuous structures. In that
case nothing remains of my entire castle in the air,
gravitation theory included, [and of] the rest of modern physics."
	-- Albert Einstein in a 1954 letter to Michele Besso.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science
    ... Mathematics has a technical vocabulary which bears a ... > conincidental similarity to common usage. ... > context, not about common usage. ... In that case nothing remains of my entire castle in the air, gravitation theory included, the rest of modern physics." ...
    (sci.cognitive)
  • Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science
    ... Mathematics has a technical vocabulary which bears a ... > conincidental similarity to common usage. ... > context, not about common usage. ... In that case nothing remains of my entire castle in the air, gravitation theory included, the rest of modern physics." ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science
    ... >> meanings and this has been pointed out to ... >> conincidental similarity to common usage. ... >> context, not about common usage. ... Technically as I recall this thread has only been about mathematics as ...
    (sci.math)
  • Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science
    ... >> meanings and this has been pointed out to ... >> conincidental similarity to common usage. ... >> context, not about common usage. ... Technically as I recall this thread has only been about mathematics as ...
    (sci.cognitive)
  • Re: Epistemology 201: The Science of Science
    ... >> meanings and this has been pointed out to ... >> conincidental similarity to common usage. ... >> context, not about common usage. ... Technically as I recall this thread has only been about mathematics as ...
    (sci.physics)