3) Philosophy is the Goddess of the Sciences — Arcane Sandwich
I checked with Copilot and AI agrees with you. (Well, it used to be - it hasn't provided much guidance in recent years, unless one means scientists who speculate) — jgill
how much of science is dependent upon the identification of the quantifiable attributes of phenomena? Which enables the application of mathematical logic to physical causation. It seems obvious to me but I don’t see much commentary on it. including in the article. He says ‘mathematics has nothing to do with physical reality’ but doesn’t the success of rocket science say he’s wrong? — Wayfarer
I checked with Copilot and AI agrees with you. — jgill
This is one of the reasons I began the article 'There is no I without the Not I' — Mapping the Medium
I see mathematics as a tool of logic that assists humanity in understanding its domain of existential experience, but other living forms have other means and tools to benefit their survival, and if faced with a dilemma that might fall outside of our domain of existence, mathematics might not be the best way to approach it. — Mapping the Medium
My position is first that mathematics is an exercise in pure logic. It is not a human construct.
Something Fichte was very fond of saying, I believe. I've also been exploring similar themes through the perspective of phenomenology of biology, Evan Thompson and Hans Jonas. Quite a different topic to the essay in the OP however. — Wayfarer
why mathematics is so powerful in the sciences, and the relationship of physics and mathematics. I think they're very interesting questions, irrespective of whether one should then elevate mathematical and physical knowledge to the exclusion of other 'domains of existence'. — Wayfarer
I'm not sure how to interpret this statement. If math is an exercise in pure logic and pure logic is a human construct, then so is math. So, is pure logic not a human construct? — jgill
My position is first that mathematics is an exercise in pure logic.
All of these activities require calculation, measurement and accounting. Some of the oldest written records, cuniform scripts on Mesopotanian pottery shards, often recorded transactions of wheat and cattle. 'Other living forms' have no need of such powers, as they don't engage in the same kinds of activities. — Wayfarer
So, is pure logic not a human construct? — jgill
. If the point is that crows and other birds can demonstrate rudimentary reasoning skills, I'm tempted to ask, 'so what?' — Wayfarer
When we recognize that mathematics is just one form of the many semiotic cognitive expression and reception tools that humans can use to navigate our terrain, this one by means of measurement, it is very important that we keep reminding ourselves that our perception of the terrain is only the human perspective.
But I also agree on the shortcomings of ‘scientism’ and the evils of what has been described as the ‘reign of quantity’. (I sometimes wonder if from the Renaissance forwards, the West has taken all those elements of Platonic and Aristotelian thought useful for engineering and science, while abandoning the ethical dimension which went along with it, in their eyes.) — Wayfarer
So are you saying that there has been no kind of ethical or socio-political thought or advancement since the renaisance? — Apustimelogist
People who throw about the word scientism are so focused on what they dislike about science that they fail to see the rest of western thought and philosophy outside of that. — Apustimelogist
Not that there has been none, but there was plainly a massive sea change in the conception of man's place in the universe — Wayfarer
'Man is the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving;...his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms.' — Wayfarer
that those who are transfixed by technological and scientific progress fail to grasp the shadow side of modern civilization which manifests as the meaning crisis. — Wayfarer
Following the Scholasticism of the Middle Ages, nominalism went on to further influence Catholicism, finding a ripe feeding ground in the Protestant Christianity of Martin Luther, then swiftly spreading by the invention of the move-able printing press. Judaism, Islam, and other theologies were not immune to its far-reaching influence. This theological element went on to have further effect on philosophy through the work of Rene Descartes, his individualistic and particularistic “I think, therefore I am” and those that followed in his vein of thought. This short-sighted thinking went on to promote dualism and the materialistic sciences of classical mechanics as seen in Leibniz’s absent-of-time equations meant to mimic the eternal and separate-from-us, casting-at-will nature of the nominalist God. Today’s sciences are finally beginning to realize the difficulties that lie in trying to rectify and consolidate what they inherited from the past with what they have since learned, and they are now being challenged with conundrums very much like the theologians of the Middle Ages. In fully recognizing the influence of the nominalism thought virus on our now global civilization, we can see that what some believe is an ongoing debate between materialistic scientism and the theological religions is actually a debate between two camps infected with the same virus. Not only has this thought virus infected science and religion but it has a strong foothold in our politics, the way we treat our planet, each other, and even our closest neighbors and family members. Symptoms and casualties of this virus manifest in mass shootings, domestic violence, drug addictions, suicides, hate crimes, climate change, the ongoing destruction of our biosphere, and so much more. — Mapping the Medium
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