I think David and I are on the same wavelength. Scott's objection will apply equally well to David's formulation. I would answer Scott, at least in part, with my longtime suspicion that logic and computer science are not considered part of mathematics only through historical accident, the same sort of accident that makes dentistry not a branch of medicine. On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 9:56 PM, David Wilson <davidwwilson@comcast.net> wrote:
Mathematics is the art of formal symbolic manipulation. Applied mathematics is the art of establishing symbolic representations of real-world phenomena.
-----Original Message----- From: math-fun [mailto:math-fun- bounces+davidwwilson=comcast.net@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of SCOTT KIM Sent: Friday, July 03, 2015 3:43 PM To: math-fun Subject: Re: [math-fun] Definition of mathematics
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?
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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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