Do numbers EXIST? - Numberphile
An expert on the philosophy of mathematics, Dr Jonathan Tallant, outlines some of the key arguments about whether or not numbers ACTUALLY EXIST? More links & stuff in full description below...
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DAVID HODGE: So what are we going to be talking about today is whether or not numbers exist. We're going to be thinking about three different schools of thought on this. First one's Platonism, second one's nominalism, and the last one is fictionalism. So mathematical Platonism takes its lead from Plato, obviously, as the name suggests. And the idea is that numbers exist. They really are things. They're objects. But they're abstract objects, so they don't exist in the same way that tables and chairs do in space and in time. Numbers exist outside space, outside time. They don't cause other things to happen. They're totally abstract objects. One of the reasons that people like mathematical Platonism is that we think ...
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DAVID HODGE: So what are we going to be talking about today is whether or not numbers exist. We're going to be thinking about three different schools of thought on this. First one's Platonism, second one's nominalism, and the last one is fictionalism. So mathematical Platonism takes its lead from Plato, obviously, as the name suggests. And the idea is that numbers exist. They really are things. They're objects. But they're abstract objects, so they don't exist in the same way that tables and chairs do in space and in time. Numbers exist outside space, outside time. They don't cause other things to happen. They're totally abstract objects. One of the reasons that people like mathematical Platonism is that we think ...
