2007-08-09 15:38:38 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
How come that a theory which is telling us about the deep nature of the world we live in cannot be expressed nor grasped through verbal thought and language, which is richer, more nuanced and more versatile than mathematics, and from which ultimately the latter sprung up? Aren’t physicists in general relying too heavily in mathematics and too contaminated by strong "mathematical Platonism" inasmuch as they seem to be so convinced that Galileo was right when he stated that "the book of nature is written in mathematical form"? Isn’t mathematics at bottom just a system of formal symbolic logic (specialised to deal with quantities) and accordingly just an expression of human reason, and shouldn’t be any mathematical equation -- at least its meaning -- expressible in ordinary language? Is it possible that anything excepting purely mathematical problems could be expressible only through mathematical language? How could we humans ever learn, teach or develop mathematics if it was not graspable by human reason, if it didn’t make any sense, if the meaning of a number or a formula was not verbally expressible?
2007-08-09 19:45:41 · answer #1 · answered by MissChatea 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think that the concept of equation has a close link with Platonism; Frequently the left side of the equation looks differently from the right side, but yet we are to hold that the sides designate the same entity. Thus, things are not always what they appear. I would think that mathematical considerations would be most potent at exalting reason over the senses...
2007-08-10 02:41:34 · answer #2 · answered by guyava99 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's a very elegant concept if you think about it. If two mathematic expressions are equivalent, then you can manipulate them, step by step, by changing both the same in each step. You can do this additively or multiplicatively or logarithmically, etc. This is a way to prove or disprove mathematical 'laws', or to understand how arithmetic operations work and what properties they have (associative, distributive, etc.)
2007-08-09 22:43:42 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Recent statistics say global warming is the cause for this, but no one knows if this is true for sure.
2007-08-09 22:40:43 · answer #4 · answered by Renegade 411 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The answer is - that a solution always exists.
2007-08-12 02:51:13 · answer #5 · answered by Marguerite 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
what ever is on one side of the equation is equal to the other side.
2007-08-09 22:40:57 · answer #6 · answered by emm 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
i er agree with eggheads and er disagree with the er thickos.
2007-08-16 16:50:32 · answer #7 · answered by beck 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think balance is one.
2007-08-09 22:41:39 · answer #8 · answered by the Boss 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
whhat is "math" anyways. or "equations" for that matter. what about "school" and "education"?
2007-08-09 22:44:23 · answer #9 · answered by Pop T 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
uuhhhh what
2007-08-09 23:41:55 · answer #10 · answered by silly_wiket 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋