Friday, December 03, 2010

On the one hand ...

... or on the other: Pi in the Sky. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

[Roger Penrose] has articled what he refers to as a Platonic view. It can be conceptualized in this way. First, there is the physical world, the natural world that surrounds us. But there’s also a Platonic world — the ideal world of mathematics. The Platonic world maps onto the natural world in some way, perhaps via the imaginative power of human mental activity. And that, if right, means there’s no need to assume that the Platonic and natural world are wrapped up in some kind of divine embrace.

But merely because you can conceptualize something doesn't mean it is so. What's the evidence to support positing this dualistic reality?

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