The Romance of Mathematics
The "Romance of Mathematics" is WMCF's light-hearted term for a perennial philosophical viewpoint about mathematics which the authors describe and then dismiss as an intellectual myth:
- Mathematics is transcendent, namely it exists independently of human beings, and structures our actual physical universe and any possible universe. Mathematics is the language of nature, and is the primary conceptual structure we would have in common with extraterrestrial aliens, if any such there be.
- Mathematical proof is the gateway to a realm of transcendent truth.
- Reasoning is logic, and logic is essentially mathematical. Hence mathematics structures all possible reasoning.
- Because mathematics exists independently of human beings, and reasoning is essentially mathematical, reason itself is disembodied. Therefore artificial intelligence is possible, at least in principle.
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It is very much an open question whether WMCF will eventually prove to be the start of a new school in the philosophy of mathematics. Hence the main value of WMCF so far may be a critical one: its critique of Platonism in mathematics, and the Romance of Mathematics.
Read more about this topic: Where Mathematics Comes From
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