From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/330 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: categories Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: Re: Intuitionism's (read "Philosophy's") Limits Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 11:14:35 -0400 (AST) Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1241016895 25219 80.91.229.2 (29 Apr 2009 14:54:55 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 14:54:55 +0000 (UTC) To: categories Original-X-From: cat-dist Wed Mar 5 11:14:37 1997 Original-Received: by mailserv.mta.ca; id AA17758; Wed, 5 Mar 1997 11:14:35 -0400 Original-Lines: 31 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:330 Archived-At: Date: Wed, 5 Mar 1997 12:46:26 +0000 (GMT) From: Dusko Pavlovic According to William James : > > Does category theory, being mathematics, have no associated philosophy? I'm afraid, William, that this presumed association of mathematics and philosophy is actually a bit of a sad romance: while some philosophies do like to be associated with mathematics, mathematics (it doesn't even have a proper plural) mathematics, most of the time, can't care less. While philosophy spends a lot of time defining itself and its relationship with the world, mathematics tends to be a kind of work some people like to do, taking up the world whichever way it comes to them: as a model of a process, as a game of signs or pictures, as a funny language shared between them and theri colleagues... Most mathematicians just smirk not only on philosophy, but even on category theory, or anything else deeply concerned with its own identity. They just like to solve their problems, and sometimes solve other people's problems, thereby gaining everyone's respect and admiration. At least, that's the way I have seen it. Perhaps it helps with your questions a bit. -- Dusko Pavlovic