Posted on 12/19/2013 2:16:52 PM PST by Heartlander
Well, that puts a curve in the works.
Well, that puts a curve in the works.
Mathematics is the study of scaling. How to get from one to infinity, and all that that implies.
Numbers can’t be numbered.
These aren’t new arguments. He is making what is generally referred to as the transcendentalist apologetic argument for the existence of God. Generally, the rules of logic are used rather than math but either will work because fundamentally the two are the same thing. A deep, but very interesting, subject to jump into. I’ve heard more than a few atheists get chewed up by taking on the transcendentalist argument in radio shows.
Mathematics is the foundation of science, the one thing that binds all branches of it.
The Philosophy described in the ancient use also included the natural sciences, but meant nothing more than the original Greek: "love of wisdom." It was not philosophy as we know it today, and the mathematical arguments used in that time were not rigorous, neither -- for most of the period -- were the natural sciences really science.
They’re actually about as old as philosophy itself. In one form or another virtually all mathematicians are platonists.
Wow, what a coincidence! Just this past Monday night me and my homies were in a bar watching the Lions on Monday night football and discussing this very subject........
Certainly the transcendent nature of math and logic provide a real world foundation for Plato's dualistic "forms vs. receptacles" approach.
That is, the Law of The Excluded Middle (being one of the most basic axioms but just one concrete example) exists because that is the way the mind of God works. But as a principle it did not exist "before" or even in parallel with His existence. I do not believe it would be true if He thought Truth existed in some other way. The axioms all seem "natural" to us, because being in His image we think as much like Him as we are able in our most lucid moments.
Dennis Prager interviewed him on his radio program within the last couple of weeks and it was a quite interesting piece. The book is on my Amazon wish list for later purchase!
Wink, wink.
My favorite is this little ditty:
A most remarkable fact
Is that i to the i,
reciprocates
the square root
of e to the pi.
FReepin’ mathematics thread ping. (its been a while).
Cewl Page!
Ah, but that is the whole point. The "Enlightenment" empirical worldview holds that reality is defined empirically - if it can't be discerned by the senses it doesn't really exist. This is the Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens position. Whether you call it "empiricist", "naturalist", "materialist" or "modernist", - this is the common foundation of each. If math, logic, and even morals are independent, objective aspects of reality which exist apart from (or "transcend") the material, "natural" universe then that worldview is blown apart. The box is now open and you're back to Plato.
Don’t get me wrong on the Plato allusion. I definitely agree with you that these non material objective aspects of reality are a reflection of the mind of God. They couldn’t exist any other way.
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