[lit-ideas] Re: Beg to differ, say, about fractals

  • From: Torgeir Fjeld <torgeir_fjeld@xxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 19:09:32 +0100 (BST)

(Now with topic included. Apologies for double posting.)

> Donal writes:
> >>>
> We may say there was no number system on earth before
> humans invented one. This would not mean such a number
> system could not apply to what is 'out there'.
> 
> Consider two number systems:- (a) '1, 2, 3, 5, more than
> 5'; and (b) '1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, more than 10'.
> The farmer with exactly 8 cows using (a)can truthfully say
> he has 'more than 5' cows; and using (b) can truthfully say
> he has exactly 8 cows. Without the man-made invention of a
> number system he could say neither, but that does not mean
> the invention cannot be used to describe what is 'out
> there'. A farmer with 8 cows but no counting-system would
> still have 8 cows; this fact is true by virtue of what is
> 'out there' irrespective of whether he has the means to
> express or know this fact. A farmerless field with exactly 8
> cows in it also has 8 cows in it - no more, no less -
> irrespective of whether humans or any other creature have a
> number system to say so.
> >>>
> 
> There's a loophole in this reasoning. When Donal states
> that "A farmer with 8 cows but no counting-system would
> still have 8 cows; this fact is true by virtue of what is
> 'out there'", is not the reason why the farmer has 8 (not 7
> or 9) cows that Donal states in the premise that he has that
> amount? The appropriate question is not whether the farmer
> has 8 cows due to it being so /out there/, but whether the 8
> cows appear so /to the farmer/ (and not to some dislocated,
> ephemeral theorist outside the practice of farming). And in
> order to answer this question the farmer's reportoire of
> articulation is highly relevant.
> 
> Best,
> Torgeir Fjeld
> Norway



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