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Sciborg_S_Patel
Like other resources threads, idea here is mostly to provide material for people wishing to investigate the topic.
Some commentary/debate is useful but please, if such discussion seems to be getting long [over 3-5 posts] create a separate thread and link to continue.
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While this thread was gobbled up twice, going to try this again, starting with Massimo Piggilucci's essay on why he became open to Mathematical Platonism:
eta: Massimo's not a Platonist anymore, see here.
Some commentary/debate is useful but please, if such discussion seems to be getting long [over 3-5 posts] create a separate thread and link to continue.
=-=-=
While this thread was gobbled up twice, going to try this again, starting with Massimo Piggilucci's essay on why he became open to Mathematical Platonism:
If one ‘goes Platonic’ with math, one has to face several important philosophical consequences, perhaps the major one being that the notion of physicalism goes out the window. Physicalism is the position that the only things that exist are those that have physical extension [ie, take up space] – and last time I checked, the idea of circle, or Fermat’s theorem, did not have physical extension. It is true that physicalism is now a sophisticated doctrine that includes not just material objects and energy, but also, for instance, physical forces and information. But it isn’t immediately obvious to me that mathematical objects neatly fall into even an extended physicalist ontology. And that definitely gives me pause to ponder.
eta: Massimo's not a Platonist anymore, see here.
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