Okay, this one is gonna be interesting. In the
Faith Science--Logically Indefensible thread, Faith made the comment that science will never abandon a KNOWN fact. To which Jar replied, of course science will. nwr then replies with "2 + 2 = 4".
It is my opinion that math is not science, and I'd like to try and prove it here (seeing as how it will most undoubtedly be ruled off-topic in the mother thread).
Onto the proofs:
1)science is tentative. What is known as fact today will not be tomorrow. math is not, to the best of my knowledge, tentative. 2 and 2 will always equal four given the rules we use (1984 does not count).
2)science has a method for finding out new things and testing old things. It is the logic behemoth known as the scientific method. THese five steps are the rule by which new scientific knowledge is added. Math has a method--for finding out answers known as the order of operations. It is not a method by which to find new formulas. IT is merely, to my knowledge, a method for arriving at the same answer as the person across from you. It is by this that 3 * 4 + 2 = 14, and not 18.
3)where is the philosophy? Science is rooted in methodological philosophy. It has a philosophical root, a foundation. As far as I know, math does not. Granted, Pythagoras used numbers as the thing that the universe was made of, but . . .
4)since when was a root a tree? Perhaps a crude analogy, but math is a foundation of science, especially in the fields of physics and chemistry. This is the weakest proof.
5) E = mc
2 is a theoretical construct, based off of what we know about how certain things work. If those things work differently, then the formula is incorrect.
Is it science would be appropriate, I would think.
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