Questions tagged [platonic-realism]

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If platonism was correct, would everything be real despite everything being formal?

In one of his recent essays (https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2021/04/why-does-the-universe-exist-some-perspectives-from-our-physics-project/) the scientist Stephen Wolfram says (at the end of it, in the "How should we feel about all this?"…
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How can mathematical results impact the physical world?

In his 2007 book I Am a Strange Loop, Douglas Hofstadter uses an analogy based on a domino computer. Indeed, it is possible to build logical doors made of dominoes (see e.g. here) and realize simple programs such as an adder (see here). For…
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How do we know we've defined a thing properly when all definitions have exceptions?

I don’t understand definitions. Let’s take this question: “What is a woman?” Now if I am a Platonic Idealist (or some other essentialist) then I think that all women share the same essence and will attempt to give a comprehensive (as opposed to…
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How be so sure that implications are bivalent? (An attempt to resolve paradoxes of material implication)

The material conditional, P→Q defined as ¬P∨Q, is usually thought not to match the usual linguistics, as seen by many paradoxes. The Wikipedia article gives few good examples. I tried to resolve them by giving an alternate logic system. It is a…
Dannyu NDos
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Do Universals Possess a Different Kind of Reality to Particulars?

I have a long interest in the 'problem of universals' and a conviction that some form of either Platonic or Aristotelian realism in respect of universals is correct. This extends to what is called 'Platonic realism' in mathematics, i.e. that…
Wayfarer
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