Questions tagged [platonism]
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85 questions
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Is it an argument against platonistic metaphysics that basically everything can be given a propositional existence?
At least for someone like Frege, who will have to stand in here for other philosophers who believe in platonic objects, platonic objects are unique by being the most objective (not dependent on an ...
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Dualism/triplism as duplicating/triplicating existences
The way I've seen dualism or triplism presented is that the realms are distinct AND that we can pin down which object belongs to which realm as a matter of first principles. For example, propositions (...
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Is theoretical physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed a platonist?
In this interview video of physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed (https://ep-news.web.cern.ch/content/interview-nima-arkani-hamed) he says that he has always been a firm believer in a platonic reality where ...
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Is Mathematical Beauty an Objective Property or a Subjective Experience?
Mathematicians often speak of the beauty of a proof, an equation, or a structure.
Gauss called mathematics the “queen of the sciences,” and Hardy famously said, “A mathematician, like a painter or a ...
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Do Mathematical Entities Exist in the Same Sense as Physical Objects?
We speak of numbers, sets, functions, and spaces with the same grammatical confidence as we do of trees, atoms, or mountains. Yet, unlike physical entities, mathematical objects are abstract, non-...
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Is there a middle ground between mathematical Platonism and non Platonism?
On the one hand, the idea that mathematical objects exists seems to make no sense to me since the very notion of existence seems to depend on the notions of location and time, and mathematical objects ...
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Deleuze's misinterpretation of Platonism
How true to the doctrine of Platonism is Gilles Deleuze's caricature of said philosophical system?
As far as I am aware he posits it in -if not identifying it as the genesis of-“discontinuity-...
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How can I convince myself that a number which is both even and odd doesn’t exist, despite the mathematical sense of platonism?
Platonists like Maudlin allege we have a mathematical sixth sense about the abstract concepts of math.
Well, when I stretch that muscle so to speak, concepts like an even and odd number seem ...
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What is the difference between Life and Being, in Neoplatonic thought, especially in Proclus?
In "Elements of Theology" Prop.105, Proclus claims that the immortal is perpetual, but not everything that is perpetual is immortal, this he argues, is because to be immortal means to always ...
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Are there notable contemporary scientists and physicists who are mathematical Platonists?
This question is motivated by @TKoL's answer to Under physicalism, what is the ontological status of the laws of logic, and what is their relationship to the laws of physics?. He said:
Physicalism - ...
user80226
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Is mathematical Platonism necessary for mathematical truths/knowledge to be non-empirical? [closed]
There is already a question about whether mathematical truth is empirical: Is mathematical truth empirical?. The most upvoted answer asserts it is not:
Mathematics is not empirical: A mathematical ...
user80226
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External truth of some sentences in first-order arithmetic
I have been pondering a way to understand semantic truth for first-order arithmetic. We know that there cannot be a decidable truth-predicate for first-order arithmetic and we also know that there ...
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How do mathematical realists explain the applicability and effectiveness of mathematics in physics?
If mathematics is real, in what sense is it real, and how do mathematical realists account for the remarkable usefulness of mathematics in describing physical phenomena? Do mathematical realists ...
user80226
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What is the ontological difference between platonism and non platonism? [duplicate]
When platonists argue that mathematical objects are real, what exactly do they even mean by them being real? Usually, when we talk about real things, there is a point in space and time where they ...
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How do we justify the Power Set Axiom?
The more I have been deeply pondering the foundation of mathematics the more it seems like the root of all evil and ambiguity comes from the (seemingly harmless) Power Set Axiom. I'm curious as to the ...
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