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Questions tagged [philosophy]

Questions involving philosophy of mathematics. Please consider if Philosophy Stack Exchange is a better site to post your question.

The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. The aim of the philosophy of mathematics is to provide an account of the nature and methodology of mathematics and to understand the place of mathematics in people's lives. The logical and structural nature of mathematics itself makes this study both broad and unique among its philosophical counterparts.

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Finality of mathematics

A random question came to me, which looks something like this : Is there such a thing as a "finality" of mathematics ? What I mean is can we imagine a time where there would be no more mathematics to discover-invent ?? (can we invent without any…
user108343
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A philosophical question on the nature of mathematics

I had a seemingly simply question today, that goes as following. What do we need for a mathematics to exist in a universe, or a system, more broadly speaking? Is it a matter of having the ability to define axioms, or regularities and certain…
tadas turonis
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How do people come up with math equation ? Does it come from manual testing thousand of time?

To generalize, an object with $n$ bits (where $n$ is an integer) can hold $2^n$ (2 to the power of n, also commonly written 2^n) unique values. Therefore, with an $8$-bit byte, a byte-sized object can hold $2^8$ ($256$) different values. An object…
Owen Strange
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Why is there so little overlap between calculus and statistics?

I was an applied math major and took several calculus-based courses, including differential equations and real analysis, as well as an introductory course sequence in probability and statistics. Both calculus and statistics are extremely useful and…
Jay Youn
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about two differrent opinions in mathematics

My question is: what is the name of mathematicians who ignore the proofs by contradiction and say all of the proofs should be constructive, and what is the name of opposite opinion?
eddie
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Does it make more sense to say we've changed the vector, or we've merely changed the space in which we're looking at the vector?

Consider the vector $\vec{v} = (p, (x_1, y_1))$, where $p \in \mathbb{R}^2 = (p_1, p_2)$ is a coordinate point that denotes where the tail of the vector is, and $(x_1, y_1) \in \mathbb{R}^2$ denotes the vector's head. The other day, I had a…
AmagicalFishy
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What is this ontological position called?

If one believes that certain 'abstract' mathematics-like concepts do exist, yet the mathematics we construct and develop as humans are only approximations of those real concepts, approximations shaped by our senses and perception, then what is one…
Janu
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Can math be learned backwards?

In C++, we can reverse engineer and performance binary analysis to know exactly what a piece of binary will do, even without seeing the original source code. In math, can this be done? Basically, can math be reverse engineered so one could, say,…
Girl Pervert
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Hand-incalculable Problems

Let's define a "hand-incalculable problem" as a mathematical problem that can not be solved by available human calculation power (using only writing materials and utensils) at a specific date and geography, during lifetime of the person who posed…
Bahribayli
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Why is list of names no more capable of expressing a proposition?

From the Open Logic Project book 2.2, Philosophical reflections (Set theory): Third: when we “identify” relations with sets, we said that we would allow ourselves to write Rxy for ⟨x, y⟩ ∈ R. This is fine, provided that the membership relation, “∈”,…
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Why do numbers apply to such disparate concepts?

I understand numbers to be defined as objects defined to have certain convenient properties in relation to certain operations. It is very surprising that the exact same group objects should be applicable to the modelling of such seemingly disparate…
tom894
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How are we able to prove, with higher confidence, mathematical rules that applies to all numbers in its domain without testing it on all numbers?

I was actually intent on asking this question in a philosophy forum because it relates to methodology of mathematics itself more than the technical operations of doing math, but it doesn't hurt to leave no stone unturned, i guess. To begin, i know…
Omar Adel
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Computing a function over an infinitely large interval

If there are infinitely many points in any interval of the real number line, how come it does not take infinitely many computations to compute a function over that interval? Infinitely many computations is impossible assuming finite resources.
oolveea
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Is it possible to create my own system of math with a new set of axioms that may or may not be observable in "the real world"?

If the axioms that we know about are true statements that can not be proven and are the foundation of "standard mathematics", would it still be considered mathematics if I create my own set of axioms then derive theorems from those axioms? Despite…
MaroonOwl
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Are indeterminate forms a sign that our mathematics system is flawed?

This is much more philosophical and opinion-based than many of the other questions asked here, but yeah, pretty much what the title says. Sometimes I think that we have this system of mathematics simply because we could count with whole numbers and…
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