Talk:Mathematics as a language

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Contents

[edit] Early discussion

Some comments on detail.

- Topos is certainly used in literary theory (it means roughly the 'place' in 'common place' of discussion, 'commonplace book' and so on.

- Sheaf is of course agricultural, too.

Charles Matthews 11:44, 21 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Interesting - I had no idea that topos had a non-mathematical meaning (but I have no excuse for sheaf !). Anyway, I've replaced both examples with fractal, which I am sure was specifically coined by Mandelbrot -- Gandalf61 12:08, Nov 21, 2003 (UTC)

[edit] Does anybody even think of questioning?

All my life, from my mom to my teachers, I have been pounded with "mathematics is a language". It seems that so has every one else. Well, I totally disagree: we are confusing the diverse languages that we use to communicate mathematical concepts with the concepts themselves. This is a special case of the more general problem of losing sight of the limitations of language: most people act as if mechanistic manipulations of symbols, words, etc. will solve any and all problems, a lazy delusion that leads to worse than math errors -- human pain from adherence to codes of law and "holy books" (Bible, Q'uran et al). A five-year-old child can tell in a fraction of a second the wrongness of an atrocious action taken in the name of an absurdity arrived at by the endless gyrations of adults who have succumbed to this robotic madness. Think about that: how many times has your own life been made miserable by some bureaucrat "because it's the law", or by some fundamentalist "because it's in the Bible". Think. - lpat89ATyahoo.com

[edit] Category theory and Chomsky

This seems suspect without support. Original research, Sokal-style hoax? Also has weaselly "perhaps". This needs citation and explanation.A Geek Tragedy 16:21, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Yes, bogus analogy. I've taken it out. Leibniz 19:26, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Patchy article

Actually quite a lot of the article looks like original research. There are some real issues that need adding raised in philosophy of mathematics, about e.g. whether mathematicians can understand each other when talking about transcendental numbers, infinite sets, etc. Ben Finn 17:23, 27 May 2007 (UTC)