Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 07:20:07 -0600
From: Hans Ehrbar <ehrbar-AT-marx.econ.utah.edu>
To: bhaskar-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
Cc: bhaskar-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
Subject: BHA: Is maths real?



Just a few brief ideas about mathematics.  Physics
has abundant evidence that there are real processes which
must be theorized using complex numbers.  Does this mean
complex numbers themselves are real?

It is also my conviction that real analysis has taken a wrong turn
with its "epsilontism", i.e., its denial of the existence of
infinitesimal and infinite numbers.  Mathematics as we know it is
punctualist and static, and therefore it has problems dealing with
motion and change.  Abraham Robinson's "Nonstandard Analysis" is an
attempt to re-introduce infinitesimals and infinite numbers into
modern mathematics, but it does not see them as categories of motion
but still as punctual entities, this is why it ends up with still a
very unwieldy theory with far too many numbers.


Hans.


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