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Elf Sternberg
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Re: mathematics
Date: 2005-08-19 06:38 pm (UTC)"Arithmetic" and "Mathematics" are not the same thing.
Arithmetic is universal (almost) and not because "...once it was invented it was so friggin' useful everybody picked it up." Many different cultures with no contact with one another appear to have discovered arithmetic independently.
Arithmetic is not "...just a symbolic language whose primary function is consistency with observable external matters and internal consistency..." It is simply addition, subtraction, multiplication and division...and it is neither arbitrary or invented.
If Bob has 4 apples, Mary has 1, Jim has 2, and Phil has 3 there is no invented symbolism behind the fact that Bob and Mary together have 5 apples and that they have the same number as Jim and Phil together.