Posted by James Mabin on May 16, 1998 at 16:27:42:
Months ago I posted an enquiry about the status of math and received two exellent replies, one drawing my attention to the fact that math is grounded in measurement and the other to the fact that there is a biological dimension in math in the sense that only humans are capable of calculation and hence presumably of measurement in any precise way.
I had asked the question whether math was a matter of invention or discovery. And I think the gist of the replies were that it was a matter of discovery through the spectacles of an invented technique / symbology.
Now I ask whether then math is a cognitive science: does it tell us things about the "real" world? And if it does is math part of that world (does it also tell us about itself?) or is a convenient method of abstracting from the "real" world, following in the footsteps of "reality" rather than anticipating it?