Timeline for Does math admit (care about) the existence of an entity?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| 2 days ago | history | edited | James K | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| 2 days ago | comment | added | James K | I sort of see where you are going with this, and it is consistent with my answer. A biologist might ask "do unicorns exist" as a biological question meaning "Do animals with the properties of the unicorn exist". On the other hand if they are asking the ontological question of existence they are not doing biology. The analogy with mathematicians is sound. If I ask "do odd perfect numbers exist" I can ask that as a mathematician, in which the meaning of "exist" is well defined within number theory, or as a philosopher in which the meaning of "exist" is key. | |
| 2 days ago | comment | added | peter | The difference between "The entity exists." and "There exists an entity that has some property." is the former does not construct a formula in math thus is neither true nor false, while the latter constructs a formula that's either true or false. | |
| 2 days ago | history | answered | James K | CC BY-SA 4.0 |