From: kalki33!system@lakes.trenton.sc.us
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: Re: QM non-causal?
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 07:09:57 EST
Reply-To: kalki33!system@lakes.trenton.sc.us
Organization: Kalki's Infoline BBS, Aiken, SC, USA

jlg@cochiti.lanl.gov (J. Giles) writes:

> ...., I'm not making a scientific point - I'm making a
> philosophical one.  Namely that mathematics is a formal system
> invented by humans and its only connection with science is
> whatever properties can be verified independently.  Those
> properties of mathematical models which do not correspond
> to verifiable properties of reality are simply not demonstrably
> real and should not be touted as facts.

Hmmm. This is one opinion, but it is not shared by all mathematicians or
scientists.

Mathematicians are engaged in the study of phenomena. The phenomena --
mathematical entities -- may not be "hard" material objects like rocks,
planets or biological organisms, but they are phenomena nevertheless:
they exist in some way because we can perceive (or conceive of) them.
The science of mathematics includes the quantitative analysis of these
mathematical entities, and it uses the same scientific method as the
other branches of science, namely observation, hypothesis, logic and
experiment.

A mathematician may make a conjecture about a certain mathematical
object, which is then made the subject of experimental study. If the
experiments turn up anything which contradicts the conjecture, then it
is rejected or modified. If no contradictory evidence is found, then --
just as in other branches of science -- the conjecture can be regarded
as SUPPORTED by the evidence, although not PROVEN by it.

Or, a mathematician may arrive at a conclusion about a certain
mathematical object by directly reasoning from accepted principles. In
that case -- just as in the other branches of science -- the conclusion
can be regarded as PROVEN, given that the accepted principles are true.

Viewed in this way, mathematics can be seen as a branch of science. We
are all familiar with the famous statements of Gauss and others about
the standing of mathematics as a science. They had good reason to make
those statements. Of course, one can get carried away by
compartmentalization, in which case one might say that mathematics is
mathematics and science is science. But this tendency to divide
everything into categories often obscures issues. In fact, the secret of
scientific achievement is to be expert at seeing how two superficially
things are really manifestations of one principle.

Mathematical objects and physical objects are both components of
reality, they are both perceivable (or at least conceivable) by the
mind, and they can both be studied under the same scientific method.

Sincerely,
Kalki Dasa

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