3 ms·

Odds are I'll get downvoted for this. Did calculus Exist in 3 B.C.? Did the Earth orbit around the Sun in 2800 B.C.? Did dinosaurs exist way, way back in the

Odds are I'll get downvoted for this. Did calculus Exist in 3 B.C.? Did the Earth orbit around the Sun in 2800 B.C.? Did dinosaurs exist way, way back in the day? My point being, does discovering something suddenly mean it exists? Perhaps things do not suddenly exist, perhaps they are discovered. Math has always existed. It still exists to this day. Math is discovered. The rules don't change. PTSD exists. It existed the first time Man A saw Friend B die in conflict. Did it have a name? Did it have a definition in a book? No. Did it exist? Yes. Was it 'discovered?' Recently. Just like in 100 years, some formal definition of technology addiction will exist. It will be some extension of ADD or whatever. It was always there, it just didn't have a name.

perturbation 12y ago
> Did Calculus exist in 3 B.C.? > Math has always existed. It still exists to this day. > Math is discovered. I really disagree with Platonism; I had trouble explaining why I had such a visceral reaction against it until I read "The Reasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics"[1], which largely frames the Platonist/Non-Platonist debate as a difference in culture among engineers, mathematicians, and physicists. Of course you're right about the other examples - I think it's pretty uncontroversial to say that there's no crazy dualism / "Does a tree falling in the woods without anyone to hear it still make a sound?" thing going on. [1] : http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=6600840 http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=tru...
jedmeyers 12y ago
> Math has always existed. I would say that laws of the Universe that math describes always existed but not math. Math is more of a language to describe something, and you can't say that the word "apple" always existed and was only discovered later. Apples existed long before the word got invented to describe it, though.

perturbation 12y ago

> Did Calculus exist in 3 B.C.? > Math has always existed. It still exists to this day. > Math is discovered. I really disagree with Platonism; I had trouble explaining why I had such a visceral reaction against it until I read "The Reasonable Ineffectiveness of Mathematics"[1], which largely frames the Platonist/Non-Platonist debate as a difference in culture among engineers, mathematicians, and physicists. Of course you're right about the other examples - I think it's pretty uncontroversial to say that there's no crazy dualism / "Does a tree falling in the woods without anyone to hear it still make a sound?" thing going on. [1] : http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=true&arnumber=6600840 http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?reload=tru...

jedmeyers 12y ago

> Math has always existed. I would say that laws of the Universe that math describes always existed but not math. Math is more of a language to describe something, and you can't say that the word "apple" always existed and was only discovered later. Apples existed long before the word got invented to describe it, though.