[FOM] Fwd: invitation to comment (charlie)

[charlie]

	   Against my permission, comments I made to three persons were excerpted and posted on FOM.   I have no desire to comment on these excerpts nor to responses to them.  I wish only that permission to post personal emails is first requested.   I note for example that Harvey always asks permission.

On Oct 10, 2011, at 5:19 PM, Timothy Y. Chow wrote:

> Charlie Silver wrote:
>> To me, the question of whether numbers exist is really a question about 
>> whether abstract entities exist (unless you can arrive at a principled 
>> way to separate some abstract entities from others).
> 
> There's a distinction here between whether individual numbers such as 12 
> and 15 exist, and whether an infinite totality of numbers exists.  I agree 
> that if one doubts whether the number "12" exists then one must equally 
> doubt whether the symbol "=" exists.  If one doubts that an infinite 
> totality of numbers exists then one must also doubt that an infinite 
> totality of proofs or formulas exists.
> 
> It doesn't follow, however, that doubting the existence of an infinite 
> totality of proofs or formulas forces one to doubt the existence of finite 
> collections of them, or of rules of inference that are tacitly understood 
> to apply only if certain feasibility conditions are met.
> 
> Tim
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