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To: betty boop
I argue, as others have done before me, that mathematical concepts and ideas exist objectively, outside of the physical world and outside of the world of consciousness. We mathematicians discover them and are able to connect to this hidden reality through our consciousness. If Leo Tolstoy had not lived we would never have known Anna Karenina. There is no reason to believe that another author would have written that same novel. However, if Pythagoras had not lived, someone else would have discovered exactly the same Pythagoras theorem. Moreover, that theorem means the same to us today as it meant to Pythagoras 2,500 years ago.
- Edward Frenkel

327 posted on 02/12/2014 1:17:51 PM PST by Heartlander (We are all Rodeo Clowns now!)
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To: Heartlander; Alamo-Girl; spirited irish; TXnMA; tacticalogic; hosepipe; MHGinTN; YHAOS
Thank you ever so much, dear Heartlander, for posting the quote from Edward Frenkel.

Perhaps needless to say, I totally agree with his statement.

Mathematics is widely recognized as a universal language.

That being the case, how could finite man "create" a universal?

331 posted on 02/12/2014 2:03:19 PM PST by betty boop (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. —Thomas Jefferson)
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