[FoRK] materialism vs. humanism

[Jeff Bone]

On Jan 3, 2008, at 4:51 PM, Dr. Ernie Prabhakar wrote:

> Hi Jeff,
>
> On Jan 3, 2008, at 9:41 AM, Jeff Bone wrote:
>>> How about square root of a negative real number?. You know its  
>>> not real, but
>>> it can be investigated by past science.
>>
>> Well, actually, the Platonists might disagree with you.
>
> That's a good point. Then again, the Platonists (and Pythagoreans)  
> would probably qualify as "mystics" by Lucas's definition...

I would historically have tended to agree with Lucas that Platonism  
was inherently mystical --- in fact, see previous ramblings some  
years ago here re: intuitionism / constructivism --- however, having  
actually tangled with some actual, hardcore mathematical Platonists  
in the last few years I'm not so sure calling them mystics in  
hindsight seems sort of like calling battle-hardened mercenaries  
"boys playing with guns." ;-)

jb