Questions tagged [platonism]
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Mathematical Platonism. Are numbers real?
Often heard this being asked: Are numbers real?
As an answer I offer my own analysis for what its worth.
The color green is considered real. As per scientists it's only distinguishing quality is that it has a wavelength of 555 nm. In essence we're…
Agent Smith
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Plato and the knowledge of the forms
Suppose Plato finally has knowledge of the "forms"* he set out to find after some time (remember knowledge). One day his soul departs to for the soul realm. When he reaches, the "forms" welcome his senses (please assume that we maintain our senses…
user40679
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Platonism in modern philosophy of physics: Stephen Wolfram and Max Tegmark ideas
Recently, Stephen Wolfram wrote an interesting article about his proposed relationship between maths and physics…
vengaq
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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?"…
vengaq
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Does the Platonic triad originate with Plato?
A Platonic triad of Good, True, and Beautiful is something I run into online and in popular philosophy books. For example: https://catholicgnosis.wordpress.com/2014/11/10/the-platonic-triad/
It's been about a year since I last did a full tour of…
StudentQuestions
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Why are abstract realms/the abstract realm thought of as being so orderly/restricted?
If the abstract realm(s) are either completely independent of the physical or are ultimate causes, neither of these seem to push the abstract realm toward being so "contained" (say, having certain things and not others). At the very least I'm pretty…
J Kusin
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Why should we care about the Platonism vs. nominalism debate?
I understand the debate to be about whether abstract concepts actually "exist". As such, it is clearly an important question for ontology.
However, I fail to see any practical reason to care about this debate. Is there any scenario in which we would…
J Li
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Platonism and causality
The Stanford Encyclopedia of philosophy states that -
"Because abstract objects are wholly non-spatiotemporal, it follows that they are also entirely non-physical (they do not exist in the physical world and are not made of physical stuff) and…
ramseysdream111
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How can we come to know anything about abstract objects (Platonism)?
In Platonism it is claimed that there exists abstract objects. But how can we come to know anything about them if they are not spatiotemporal and exist seperately from us?
Richard Bamford
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Is there an “algorithm” philosophy? Perhaps between relativism and pragmatism?
I’m looking for philosophy that has the agent as central in characterizing knowledge, but is not as relative as relativism as knowledge will come from algorithms, and before pragmatism. I don’t think algorithms are explained by or restricted to…
J Kusin
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Why are there 8 Deductions, and not 6, in Plato's Parmenides?
In Plato's Parmenides, we have the 8 Deductions that go something like this (this applies, as best as I can see, to both the standard and non-standard models that the SEoP describes. All this is shamelessly lifted from the SEoP site):
If the G is,…
ConnieMnemonic
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In what realm do mathematics objects exist according to Platonists?
"Intuitionists" believe that mathematics is just a creation of the
human mind. In that sense you can argue that mathematics is invented
by humans. Any mathematical object exists only in our mind and doesn't
as such have an existence.
"Platonists",…
Sayaman
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What is the ontological status of Plato's Demiurge?
I've done some searching and have found that he (it?) is the anthropomorphization of the deliberate Intellect's intent (SEP: Plato's Timaeus). I understand that he is neither an idea nor an idea's reflection in any worldly object, since he fashions…
Mariusz Popieluch
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What evidence is there that Gödel believed the mind to be non-physical?
On the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's article on Platonism in Metaphysics, the author writes that "Gödel's version of this view — and he seems to be alone in this — involves the idea that the mind is non-physical in some sense". In the…
Samuel
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Did physicist Max Born think that mathematical structures are platonic entities?
It seems that prominent physicist Max Born (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Born) believed in some kind of Platonism.
We can infer this, for example, from the book "The Innermost Kernel" (https://epdf.pub/the-innermost-kernel.html):
In a letter…
Maribel
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