NP Alabama Pi

[Vaska Tumir]

Re: NP Alabama PiThis does surprise me: the claim or impression that most mathematicians see their art as absolute thruth.  I use the word "art" because many of them resist truth-claims for what they do.  Or prefer to call maths an art.  There was quite a discussion about this on the Bhaskar list I mentioned.  As well as a pretty long article in the NYRB some years back (early to mid '90s, perhaps I still have it somewhere) that sticks in the mind for exactly the same reason: I thought it curious how the best of them tend to describe their theories as metaphors.

But maybe Jody's refering to people who use/apply maths?

Vaska 

jporter:

"between the Biblical literalists and Platonic Idealists (PI) there would definitely seem to be a lost middle ground. Your post reminded me of a NY Times article from Feb 10, 1998, that's been lying around on my bedroom floor: *Useful Invention or AbsoluteTruth: What is Math?* by George Johnson. At last, an excuse to pick it up.

I won't reproduce it here, but the gist: There seems to be growing support, among those who think about such things, that Pi (and other versions of Platonic Idealism) ain't so absolute, after all. Not that Math is a "relativistic free-for-all," but it may very well be a human invention- a manifestation not just of our brains but of our bodies, and the "grounding metaphors" [George Lakoff- quoted in the art.] that link them.

Bottom line: Math works, but that doesn't mean it's the absolute truth, even though many scientists (crypto-Platonists, no doubt!) appear to operate as such."

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