Re: Reading Dawkins ... was "Scrump"

On Fri, 3 Oct 2008 07:41:16 -0700 (PDT), "Paul {Hamilton Rooney}"
<PaulVRooney@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Maths - a description of what we have observed? Really?
I can think of dozens of ways to disprove that statement.

That gets into tricky questions. math, long ago, was used to
describe observations. Geometry was developed as a way to divide
up land. But nearer the present day math became disentangled from
observation and now is a purely intellectual endevor. The fact
that much of it is homomorphic to observable phenomena is
irrelevant to mathematicians while of crucial importance to
physicists and engineers.

I had the pleasure many years ago, while a graduate student in
physics, to take a math course called somthing like "Plane
Geometry from an Advanced Viewpoint". It was a fascinating course
as it developed geometery from the basic postulates as a pure
math, with nary a picture of a line or triangle or circle in the
whole text. it made me, an engineer and physics student, finally
understand the nature of true math.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN (hatunen@xxxxxxx) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *
.

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