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Single Idea 4533

[filed under theme 6. Mathematics / C. Sources of Mathematics / 9. Fictional Mathematics ]

Full Idea

Logic (like geometry and arithmetic) applies only to fictitious entities that we have created.

Gist of Idea

Logic and maths refer to fictitious entities which we have created

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (The Will to Power (notebooks) [1888], §516)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'The Will to Power', ed/tr. Kaufmann,W /Hollingdate,R [Vintage 1968], p.280


A Reaction

This finds Nietzsche on the relativist wing of logical empiricism. The thing is, fictitious entities can have a close relationship with truth, as in a great novel. I believe in necessary logical truth, but there are many ways of slicing it.


The 11 ideas with the same theme [mathematics is purely invented, and is not true]:

Logic and maths refer to fictitious entities which we have created [Nietzsche]
Numbers are classes of classes, and hence fictions of fictions [Russell]
Higher cardinalities in sets are just fairy stories [Bostock]
A fairy tale may give predictions, but only a true theory can give explanations [Bostock]
Fictionalists say 2+2=4 is true in the way that 'Oliver Twist lived in London' is true [Field,H]
Mathematics is only empirical as regards which theory is useful [Field,H]
Abstractions can form useful counterparts to concrete statements [Field,H]
Why regard standard mathematics as truths, rather than as interesting fictions? [Field,H]
Putting numbers in quantifiable position (rather than many quantifiers) makes expression easier [Yablo]
Platonic objects are really created as existential metaphors [Yablo]
Why is fictional arithmetic applicable to the real world? [Potter]