Love this question and am not happy yet with any answers I've heard. I want a definition that does not just say what math is, but also distinguishes it from its near neighbors (e.g. Computer science and logic) and distinguishes among ways of practicing math, e.g. Pure vs. applied vs. recreational. Thoughts? Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 11, 2015, at 3:23 PM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, in a gathering of mathematicians throwing out candidate definitions of mathematics, I half-seriously ventured the opinion that mathematics is the subset of philosophy consisting of those philosophical questions that actually have answers, along with the answers to those questions.
But I don't think this is original. Whom am I quoting (or paraphrasing) here?
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