Theos-Talk Archives (January 1997 Message tl00149)

>I'd like to see a "formal proof" that 2+2 might not be 4, also.

Try using base 3.

The argument about whether mathematics is invented or discovered 
continues to wear on in philosophgical circles. Both sides here are 
presenting oversimplified views of the issues. Formalism and Idealism are 
not the same thing and Godel's Theorem is not a disproof of Idealism. At 
the same time, we must note that the ideas held by mathematicians about 
what the laws of mathematics are have changed over time and have changed 
enormously in the last two centuries, so an argument for timelessness 
would be hard to sustain.

Tim Maroney