Ana the Ist
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Again? These loons came out of the woodwork the first time around....
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Math is racist
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Again? These loons came out of the woodwork the first time around....
Kaon
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It was a statement, and technically the question was rhetorical.
My statement has already been said, and highlights exactly what I meant to say. Did you want to answer the question?
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I think he was trying to imply that everyone who believes in mathematics is a "white supremacist."
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That’s great. But I’m not getting your point. Can you explain it?
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Quid est Veritas?
In Memoriam to CS Lewis
Okay, so Mathematics is a human construct. We see two apples and add two apples and then we create an abstract concept of number that we write out as 2 + 2 = 4. This goes back to the fact that Mathematics does not have a proof for statements like these, in spite of centuries of attempts to do so; they are the philosophical axioms of the system. It has to do with the problem of Universals, so some argue it represents real associations inferred and others just useful abstraction. So while I doubt math is racist, it is the product of Babylonian, Greco-Roman, Islamic and Western Civilisation; and is expressed in a mixture of Hindu-Arabic numerals, Greek and Latin letters, and Western signs and symbols. The modern form is disproportionately a product of the Middle-East and Europe, and not so much the rest.
So yes, her quote says it is cultural (which is true) and thanks to colonisation and Imperialism, the rest of the world thinks it is the only way of knowing (which is also true). That doesn't necessarily equate to Racism, nor does it mean that mathematics is therefore not useful or potentially true. You could say the same thing about Modern Medicine, also a practice of the West and couched in its cultural idioms and usages, and largely imposed on the rest of the world by its utility, efficacy, and cultural dominance.
So yes, her quote says it is cultural (which is true) and thanks to colonisation and Imperialism, the rest of the world thinks it is the only way of knowing (which is also true). That doesn't necessarily equate to Racism, nor does it mean that mathematics is therefore not useful or potentially true. You could say the same thing about Modern Medicine, also a practice of the West and couched in its cultural idioms and usages, and largely imposed on the rest of the world by its utility, efficacy, and cultural dominance.
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Depending on exactly what you mean, I'm not so sure about that. Written number systems have been developed independently all around the world, and they are all equivalent, whether you write ••+••=•••• (Mayan) or II+II=IV (Roman) or β+β=δ (Greek) or 2+2=4 (modern) or S(S(0))+S(S(0))=S(S(S(S(0)))).
This cultural independence is an indication that mathematics is built into the fabric of reality at a deeper level than the laws of physics. In fact, Russell and Whitehead showed that you could derive mathematics from logic.
Also true.
Your sentence is ambiguous, but when it comes to numbers, mathematics is the only way of knowing. There are no "alternate" number-manipulation systems where 2+2=5. Thanks to its logical character, modern mathematics has absorbed all the independent strands of mathematics from around the world. Any bright idea about numbers developed by anybody in any culture, once proved and published, becomes part of modern mathematics.
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Quid est Veritas?
In Memoriam to CS Lewis
Not my sentence, I was quoting the woman from the OP.
You can create a mathematics based on the axiom of 2 + 2 = 5, and it could be just as logical and coherent. Whether it would be sound is a more philosophical question, and more pertinent.
You mean Russell and Whitehead failed to completely derive it from logic, leading to developments in Meta-logic and mathematical ideas like Godel's Incompleteness theorum.
Mathematics is not culturally independant, though. Some cultures count inclusively, some exclusively; some divide decimally, some with an 8 base. While you can express their systems in our Western paradigm, because essentially we are dealing with denoting the abstract Number, that does not make mathematics itself independant of it. Humans naturally seem to create an abstraction of Number, but the ways thet relate these numbers can be very different.
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No, they didn't fail. There was a paradox first time around, type theory fixes that.
Whether you write ••+••=•••• (Mayan) or II+II=IV (Roman) or β+β=δ (Greek) or 2+2=4 (modern) or S(S(0))+S(S(0))=S(S(S(S(0)))) or whether you use base 2 or base 8 or base 10 or base 16 or base 60 makes no difference.
It's exactly the same mathematics whichever you use.
Actually, that's not the case.
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Quid est Veritas?
In Memoriam to CS Lewis
No, Western Mathematics just replaced the other systems, and we being trained therein, naturally relate it to it. Mathematics is not universal, and like every other human thing, is a derived structure from philosophical axioms. I mean, we invented the concepts of 0 and negative numbers - if anything demonstrates it, that should.
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What "other systems"? I'm fully conversant with mathematics from multiple cultures, and it's all the same mathematics. There is no culture where 2+2=5.
If you disagree, feel free to find some branch of ethnomathematics that is incompatible with standard mathematics.
Of course it is.
But the axioms, in the case of numbers, are self-evident.
Once again, if you disagree, feel free to find some branch of ethnomathematics that is incompatible with standard mathematics.
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