[FOM] Mathematics ***is*** formalising of our thought and intuition

Vaughan Pratt pratt at cs.stanford.edu
Tue Jun 1 03:00:26 EDT 2010



On 5/28/2010 2:52 PM, hendrik at topoi.pooq.com wrote:
> On Fri, May 28, 2010 at 11:48:53AM -0700, Robert Lindauer wrote:
>> Consider: "Political science is the art and practice of devising and
>> using conceptual spaces where long sequences of reasoning steps can be
>> carried out without error"
>
> I've never seen a political scientist carry out long sequences of
> reasoning steps about politics and have the kind of reliability one
> gets in mathematics.

Complex arguments are the mathematician's friend, and the enemy of her 
customer.

This could also be said of stockbrokers.

Vaughan Pratt


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