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Full Idea
A large part of the natural laws introduced by science treat only of the mutual relations between the results of counting and measuring.
Gist of Idea
Scientific laws largely rest on the results of counting and measuring
Source
Luitzen E.J. Brouwer (Intuitionism and Formalism [1912], p.77)
Book Ref
'Philosophy of Mathematics: readings (2nd)', ed/tr. Benacerraf/Putnam [CUP 1983], p.77
A Reaction
His point, I take it, is that the higher reaches of numbers have lost touch with the original point of the system. I now see the whole issue as just depending on conventions about the agreed extension of the word 'number'.
| 19390 | Everything is subsumed under number, which is a metaphysical statics of the universe, revealing powers [Leibniz] |
| 12451 | Scientific laws largely rest on the results of counting and measuring [Brouwer] |
| 18118 | Brouwer regards the application of mathematics to the world as somehow 'wicked' [Brouwer, by Bostock] |
| 9897 | The application of a system of numbers is counting and measurement [Benacerraf] |
| 18066 | The old view is that mathematics is useful in the world because it describes the world [Kitcher] |
| 9621 | Mathematics represents the world through structurally similar models. [Brown,JR] |
| 9946 | Logicists say mathematics is applicable because it is totally general [George/Velleman] |
| 21649 | How can words be used for counting if they are objects? [Hofweber] |
| 20660 | At one level maths and nature are very similar, suggesting some deeper origin [Wolfram] |
| 19677 | What is mathematically conceivable is absolutely possible [Meillassoux] |
| 14246 | If mathematics purely concerned mathematical objects, there would be no applied mathematics [Oliver/Smiley] |