FOM: wider cultural significance, part 1

[Raatikainen Panu A K]

Simpson wrote:

>One approach to (b) would be to argue that PRA is consistent because
>the physical world provides a model of it, and then to justify at
>least a significant fragment of mathematics by reducing it to PRA...

I wonder.... I am far from being an expert in modern  physics, but 
isn't it the received view in it that the universe is finite ? 
PRA, on the other hand, requires an infinite universe of discourse.
So my question is: how on earth does the physical world provide a 
model of PRA ?  Or  maybe I understood something completely wrong ? 
In any case, it would be interesting to get this issue clarified.

Panu Raatikainen
Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
University of Helsinki
Finland

E-mail: panu.raatikainen at helsinki.fi