A contradiction in my Philosophy

[forsyth]

I'm not a fan of "Eternal Truths", as I've made known before.

And yet, math works, comes out the same, and describes the universe eerily well. Why?

Some people would say that by looking at the world through math, we make it fit that, which is kinda true, but not. Math doesn't pretend to describe everything. But 2+2=4, always. So how does that work? I don't know.

Tags: Mindscribbles, Life, The Universe, and Everything

Comments

[evilcarp.livejournal.com]

Math only works because we've decided it works. We've made up numbers, we define them and how they work. There's no actual thing that exists outside of the human mind that actually is + or =. There's no chemical or physcial reaction that melds two and two things together and makes four.

[kalifla.livejournal.com]

Ah, but you forget that numbers are based on amounts, which don't change. One amount of something is the exact same amount of that something anywhere in the universe, even if it's called different things. And there are plenty of chemical reactions that meld two amounts of things with another two amounts of things to make four of a new thing(s).
We make up the numbers, but we don't define how they work. We descover how they work, because we can try to put the two things with the other two things to get five things and fail. I won't lie that there're loopholes - but math in its purest sense will always work. ^)^