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Author | Topic: Easy proof for Inteligent Design | |||||||||||||||||||||||
nwr Member Posts: 6408 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
MrQ writes:
Everybody knows that 1+1 = 0.Like can a reality exist that in it 1+1=3? Well, okay, make that everybody who does mod 2 arithmetic.
MrQ writes:
It isn't.Now why should reality be able to be described by logic? Before reality could be described, we humans (or our ancestors) had to devise a description language. They devised a language that happens to be amenable to logic.
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nwr Member Posts: 6408 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
I am not Blue Jay, but I'll comment anyway.
MrQ writes:
MSWord, the program, is abstract.Do you believe MS Word is a concrete or an abstract object? The disk or CDROM that you have containing MSWord is physical. The encoding of MSWord on that disk is physical, but it is not the program. Rather, that encoding is a physical representation of the program. I'll add that there is some disagreement about this question, though I think most computer scientists, mathematicians and philosophers would agree with me.
MrQ writes:
You are correct. It isn't coincidence. It is because scientists try to design their description language to be as mathematical as possible.
I believe that reason for the fact that the world around us is so astonishingly, explained by mathematics is not just a coincidence. It can't be! MrQ writes:
Sorry, no, it isn't. However, it is interwoven into the language we use to describe the universe, but that's because we designed our scientific language that way.
I believe that logic is inter-weaved into the fabric of the universe ... MrQ writes:
Those of us who have taught classes on mathematics are aware that the human mind is not at all logical.
Also the fact that our mind is so logical that even thinking about an illogical thing like 1+1=3 makes us go dizzy is not a coincidence. MrQ writes:
Actually, no, the physical laws have little effect on you until you study them in class. It is the behavior of the universe that shapes us. The physical laws are just our way of describing that behavior.
The physical laws have shaped us during the passage of the time and also since birth everything around us looked and behaved like that. MrQ writes:
Actually, quantum physics uses some very mathematical laws, too.
That's why discoveries in quantum physics looks so distant and strange to us. MrQ writes:
Speaking only for myself, I think logical positivism is silly. So, no, I am not a positivist.
Poeple here have the positivist philosophical view toward the world and that's why this is very hard for them to sallow. MrQ writes:
Actually, mathematics does not explain the world at all. However, I'll take it that you are really asking about why some of our scientific laws are so mathematical. That is actually because scientists choose to design their laws that way. Scientific laws are not God's prescription on how the world runs. Rather, they are man's prescription on how we describe the world. And while scientists cannot command the world to behave in particular ways, they often have some freedom of choice in how they design their description language. When they have sufficient freedom, they choose to make the description language as mathematically tractable as possible because that makes the resulting descriptions easier to use.
Why mathematics does explain the world so good? MrQ writes:
LOL. If you read some of the philosophy literature, you will find lots of arguments and disagreements over what are necessary truths.
Why all human beings agree on necessary truths and logic but differ on everything else?
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nwr Member Posts: 6408 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
MrQ writes:
These are copies of the program. They are different physical representations.Now assume we have three copies of MS word one on CD one on flash disk and one running on a computer. Now, my question is how do you identify and present concrete part of MS Word? What is the difference between these three? We would still say that they are the same program, not different programs. What makes MSWord abstract, is that we talk about it in ways that require it to be abstract. That we say all three copies are the same program (as distinct from saying that they are three different programs) is an example of that way of talking that requires that the program be abstract. I should add that the way we talk about the program reflects the way that we think about it. And it is the way that we think about it that has to do with it being abstract.
MrQ writes:
I'm not sure why you think that has to do with anything.Assume that you are blind folded and there is a toolbox infront of you and one screw on the wall. I will ask you to open that screw, you just reach out and take one tool and that tool happens to match exactly the screw for opening! If you think science is a matter of marvelous coincidence, where the scientist just happens to have the right "tool", then you don't understand much about science. There is often a great struggle and lots of debate on how to organize a scientific study and how to formulate a theory.
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nwr Member Posts: 6408 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
MrQ writes:
If MSWord is abstract, then there is no concrete part.
Try to come out of the abstract part. I asked about the concrete part. I asked you to identify that for me. Like draw a border around the bits that constitutes MS Word. MrQ writes:
The flash disk has electrical encodings (parts that are ionized). That's physical.Like for example we have flash disk that has many programs on it including MS Word. I want you to show me the concrete part of MS Word. We say that the flash disk has bits (binary digits). But bits are just how we interpret it in our minds. The flash disk physically (in concrete terms) has only the electrical encodings. We say that those encoding respresent the bits. Sometimes we talk losely and say that they are the bits. However a binary digit is purely a logical structure, and not physical at all. What is physical, is how we represent those binary digits in physical structure. MSWord is made of binary digits. So it is entirely abstract, though it is represented on the disk in those electrical encodings that represent the binary digits.
MrQ writes:
Is that intended to be a serious comment? It seems like complete nonsense.You didn't get my point. Scientist do debates but all the debates are still in the realm of mathematics. For example they don't even consider art and literature. Why is that?! Because they know those won't work! Only mathematics works! There's no way you could build a scientific theory out of art and literature. You are not making sense when you suggest that.
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nwr Member Posts: 6408 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
MrQ writes:
The apple that I eat is concrete (or non-abstract). After I have eaten it, then it is only a memory.Now what an apple, is that abstract or concrete? The Apple computer is also concrete. The Apple Corporation is an abstraction. I'm not sure what you take to be the point of all that. Whether something is abstract depends mostly a matter of how we look at it, think about it, talk about it.
MrQ writes:
Only in the broad sense that both are human inventions.
But in fact, math and art both have the same root. MrQ writes:
Did it ever occur to you that mathematics is useful because it was made to be useful?
You look at the nature, get inspired and then develop something out of your imagination. One is working the other one not. MrQ writes:
Whether mathematics is based on logic is itself disputable.Why? because of logic! The first one is based on logic but the second isnt! I have never understood this attitude to logic. Some people, such as you, seem to think that logic is some wondrous thing, a kind of magic I just see it as a name for some pragmatic methods we use to organize our thoughts.
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nwr Member Posts: 6408 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
MrQ writes:
While the apple is still growing on the tree, there is a continuous exchange of atoms and molecules. Some atoms that were once part of the apple are replaced by others. Some new ones were added.OK, good now tell me if the apple you eat is concrete then can you identify and present its concrete parts? Like can you identify the molecules and atoms and draw a line around them and say this is an apple? Do you also call apple molecules an apple? After the apple matures and stops growing, the rate of molecular exchange with the environment reduces, but it does not stop completely. An apple is not defined in terms of the molecules. It is defined in terms of its characteristics (appearance, texture) and its history (how it came to be).
MrQ writes:
Freedom, as a concept, is abstract. Particular instances of freedom might have physical aspects.
Also then tell me what is freedom, abstract or concrete? MrQ writes:
I am inclined to say that the are different kinds of abstract things. However, I have never attempted to make a generic hierarchical classification of abstract things.
Do you see any difference between an abstract subject like freedom and MS Word? MrQ writes:
But art was not made to be useful, though it sometimes is. Art was made to challenge the perceptions of people.
That's true. But art is also useful! MrQ writes:
I'm not sure I would say that it is based on anything, other than the desires of mathematicians to understand and idealize how they interact with the world.
I don't understand how can you dispute that? If mathematics is not based on logic so it is based on what? Formalism: the thesis that mathematics is based on the study of formal notations;
logicism: the thesis that mathematics is based on logic, andn is a branch of logic; platonism: the thesis that mathematics is based on the study of platonic idea forms; intuitionism: the thesis that mathematics is based on the study of human intuitions. Of those, platonism is perhaps the closest fit. And most mathematicians seem to be platonists. I consider myself a fictionalist, meaning that I see mathematical objects (such as numbers) as useful fictions, and I don't see mathematics as actually based on anything other than what mathematicians want to do.
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nwr Member Posts: 6408 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
MrQ writes:
Okay. We agree so far.
There is an abstract concept, product of mind, for both MS Word and apple. MrQ writes:
And there, we completely disagree.So for me and you an apple growing on tree or in a basket is still an apple even if its molecules change! The same is true about MS Word. The MS Word, on a flash disk, CD or running on a computer to us is still MS Word. But there its concrete part changes. The molecules of MSWord never change. That's because it does not have molecules. What constitutes MSWord, is a pattern of binary digit, and this is independent of what method we use to represent those binary digits. If I have an apple in my left hand, and an apple in my right had - those are two distinct apples. I happen to own two copies of MSOffice 2007. If I hold one in my left hand and one in my right hand, those are two distinct CD, but they are not two distinct MSWords. There is only one MSWord 2007.
MrQ writes:
You can disagree all you like. But your disagreement won't change anything.To sum it up, if you have categorized apple as concrete then you need to categorize MS Word as concrete as well! But I disagree! You would need to come up with a different way of describing MSWord. But it would have to be a way that works just as well in our speech and our thought. Identifying MSWords with the molecules of the CD does not work for that.
MrQ writes:
Is it? That is far from clear.The point I wanted to make was that logic is an essential part of mathematics. Some logicians and philosophers think that mathematics is a branch of logic. But most mathematicians think that logic is a branch of mathematics, but is only a relatively small part of mathematics.
MrQ writes:
But what does that mean?No matter what view point you hold from the above mentioned philosophies, still all parts of mathematics deal with logic. I have a Ph.D. in mathematics. However, I have never taken a class in logic in my life. No class in logic was ever prerequisite to studying mathematics.
MrQ writes:
Clear, precise thing is essential to doing mathematics. If you want to identify logic with clear precise thinking, then I guess you could say that logic is essential. But I am inclined to think that a bit of a stretch.
Now, you might not believe that all mathematics can be reduced to logic but the fact that logic plays an essential role in mathematics is undeniable. MrQ writes:
The Peano axioms are normally taken to define arithmetic. Yet arithmetic was being used 1000 years before the Peano axioms were ever defined. The idea that mathematics consists of logical derivation from axioms is seriously mistaken.
Specially after defining the initial axioms which are agreed to be true things goes forward based on logic.
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nwr Member Posts: 6408 From: Geneva, Illinois Joined: Member Rating: 5.1 |
MrQ writes:
Notice the difference between eating (in the case of the apple) and copying (in the case of MSWord). That's an example of why you cannot treat them equivalently.If I asked you to eat an apple. You could eat the left one or right one. If I asked you give me a copy of MS Word 2007 or give me MS Word then also you could give me the left one or right one. In any case, I am exiting from this discussion of the abstract. It has become pointless. I already mention in Message 76 that there is some disagreement about this. I believe I have adequately explained why I consider programs to be abstract, although this has not persuaded you. I will leave it at that.
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