Platonism in modern mathematics, again

JKSCHW at aol.com JKSCHW at aol.com
Sun Apr 2 15:56:36 PDT 2000


In a message dated 4/2/00 5:00:03 PM Eastern Daylight Time, bhandari at phoenix.Princeton.EDU writes:

<< Where do numbers come from? Do they exist outside human beings, or did

humanity invent them? Do they somehow exist beyond

space and time, as one of my old neo-Platonist philosophy professors

intimated? Are numbers the specifications for the architecture of the

universe? >>

Numbers came from New Zealand. They used to exist outside human beings, on small watery bubbles, rather fragile, but since the discovery of postmodernism, excuse me the invention of postmodernism, they do not any more, and neither does anything else. Humanity of course invented them, but this sentence is not true--neither is it false. It used to be false, but those categories a e now outmoded, boring, and phallocratic. As for existing outside space and time, they do, but only on alternative Tuesdays, except in Nebraska, where it is in violation of several state and local ordinances for anything to exist outside space and time. The specifications for the archirecture of the universe, however, are not numbers but Russian swear words.

Hope this clears things up.

--jks



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list