Return-Path: Delivery-Date: Received: from antares.mcs.anl.gov (actually antares9.mcs.anl.gov !OR! owner-qed@mcs.anl.gov) by swan.cl.cam.ac.uk with SMTP (PP-6.5) outside ac.uk; Thu, 10 Nov 1994 08:33:50 +0000 Received: from localhost (listserv@localhost) by antares.mcs.anl.gov (8.6.4/8.6.4) id CAA05464 for qed-out; Thu, 10 Nov 1994 02:29:34 -0600 Received: from bos1a.delphi.com (SYSTEM@bos1a.delphi.com [192.80.63.1]) by antares.mcs.anl.gov (8.6.4/8.6.4) with ESMTP id CAA05456 for ; Thu, 10 Nov 1994 02:29:27 -0600 Received: from delphi.com by delphi.com (PMDF V4.3-9 #7804) id <01HJASSYW7KW9UNGQY@delphi.com>; Thu, 10 Nov 1994 03:26:53 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 03:26:53 -0500 (EST) From: Lyle Burkhead Subject: Platonism To: qed@mcs.anl.gov Message-id: <01HJASSYW7KY9UNGQY@delphi.com> X-VMS-To: INTERNET"qed@mcs.anl.gov" MIME-version: 1.0 Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Sender: owner-qed@mcs.anl.gov Precedence: bulk >A-Platonism is the opinion that our mathematical objects have a >real existence in some real world. Apparently this means that all mathematical objects are on the same footing. Another possibility would be D-platonism: some mathematical objects have a real existence and others don't. >An essential difference is that the mathematician may even be cheating: >he starts with some assumptions that he wants to disprove, in the course of >the argument he constructs objects, treats them psychologically as existing >things, until at the end a contradiction is reached and the whole edifice >falls into pieces. A D-platonist is not committed to the actual existence of such objects.