Re: Proof there exists a soul


Robert J. Kolker wrote:
> manutter51@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
> > of objective reality.
> >
> > Pi is not something that exists only in the minds of mathematicians. A
> > number of ancient Greek philosophers objected to the idea of pi because
> > it was an irrational number, a decimal that never repeats and never
> > ends.
>
> The Greeks knew nothing of repeating decimal expansions and they
> invented pi, the ratio between the length of a circle and the length of
> its diameter. They showed this ratio is independent of the position or
> size of circles.

Sorry, it was the square root of two, not pi:

"The discovery of irrational numbers is usually attributed to
Pythagoras, more specifically to the Pythagorean Hippasus of
Metapontum, who produced a (most likely geometrical) proof of the
irrationality of the square root of 2. The story goes that Hippasus
discovered irrational numbers when trying to represent the square root
of 2 as a fraction (proof below). However Pythagoras believed in the
absoluteness of numbers, and could not accept the existence of
irrational numbers. He could not disprove their existence through
logic, but his beliefs would not accept the existence of irrational
numbers and so he sentenced Hippasus to death by drowning."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrational_number

However the point still stands. There is an objectively real square
root of two, of which the mind can only create an approximation, which
when multiplied by itself gives exactly two. The exact square root of
two cannot be said to exist only in the mind, because the mind cannot
represent the *exact* square root of two--it is an infinite string of
digits, and the mind is finite. Hence it does not technically exist in
the mind at all. Only approximations and symbols for the square root
of two can exist in the mind. Yet the square root of two does exist,
and figures in many real-world calculations and predictions that turn
out to be correct. Architects and engineers use it all the time. We
refer to it in our math so often because we want our mental
calculations to reflect what we find in the real world, and the real
world contains many instances of the square root of two and other
mathematical phenomena that are objectively real even though they are
not made of matter.

> > Where do you get the idea that "mind" is a substance? Why do you not
> > answer the question "what is mind made of?" What is your definition of
> > "substance"?
>
> The usual definition of "substance" is something that can exist
> independent of anything else.

Interesting. But that assumes that there *is* something that can exist
independent of anything else, that reality isn't inherently
interrelated and interdependent in some fundamental way.

m

.

Relevant Pages

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