12 ideas
8956 | What is a singleton set, if a set is meant to be a collection of objects? [Szabó] |
10245 | One geometry cannot be more true than another [Poincaré] |
15923 | Poincaré rejected the actual infinite, claiming definitions gave apparent infinity to finite objects [Poincaré, by Lavine] |
18085 | Values that approach zero, becoming less than any quantity, are 'infinitesimals' [Cauchy] |
18084 | When successive variable values approach a fixed value, that is its 'limit' [Cauchy] |
10180 | Mathematicians do not study objects, but relations between objects [Poincaré] |
9916 | Convention, yes! Arbitrary, no! [Poincaré, by Putnam] |
18203 | Avoid non-predicative classifications and definitions [Poincaré] |
8953 | Abstract entities don't depend on their concrete entities ...but maybe on the totality of concrete things [Szabó] |
8954 | Geometrical circles cannot identify a circular paint patch, presumably because they lack something [Szabó] |
8955 | Abstractions are imperceptible, non-causal, and non-spatiotemporal (the third explaining the others) [Szabó] |
15877 | The aim of science is just to create a comprehensive, elegant language to describe brute facts [Poincaré, by Harré] |