This is false.
The error is this.
1 All imaginary objects are immaterial objects.
2 Numbers are immaterial objects
3 ∴ Numbers are imaginary.
1 All cats are mammals.
2 Dogs are mammals
3 ∴ Dogs are cats.
The error is this.
1 All imaginary objects are immaterial objects.
2 Numbers are immaterial objects
3 ∴ Numbers are imaginary.
1 All cats are mammals.
2 Dogs are mammals
3 ∴ Dogs are cats.
Numbers are Platonica. They are abstract entities with real being apart from human thought. The ways you can tell this (the most obvious ways) are
1 Numbers have properties which can’t be changed by human beings. The number six is even and there’s nothing you can do about it. If numbers were human constructions, they could be constructed differently, at our will, but they can’t, so they’re not.
2 Numbers are integral the composition of nature, once again, entirely independently of human thought about/study of nature. Nature has a mathematical structure. This mathematical structure is not an effect of human construction. We don’t make nature’s structure, but discover it.
“The book of nature is written in mathematical characters,” said Galileo.
We don’t actually WRITE the book of nature. We only READ it.
We don’t actually WRITE the book of nature. We only READ it.
The error many people make in metaphysics is to decide—arbitrarily—that one kind of being is the “right” kind, and to dismiss all other kinds. Materialists think things without physical stuff aren’t really real (like this doofus). Idealists think everything is made of thought.
But the truth is actually rather simple: everything has the kind of being it has, and not some other kind. Material things possess matter. Mathematical things have mathematical being, or more generally Platonic being. Mental things have mental being.
The three BASIC divisions in reality—as far as I can tell, and there may be more—are
1 Physical being
2 Psychical/Mental being
3 Platonica/Abstract, formal being
The mind relates to the other two by KNOWING.
1 Physical being
2 Psychical/Mental being
3 Platonica/Abstract, formal being
The mind relates to the other two by KNOWING.
Physical being is not really material. It has matter, but is really form/matter composites. It can be known because it participates in formal being.
Platonic being is purely formal, without matter, and so is intelligible as such & can be known. Mathematics is the paradigm here.
Platonic being is purely formal, without matter, and so is intelligible as such & can be known. Mathematics is the paradigm here.
