Gregory Chaitin - Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered?

Closer To Truth · 53K views · 2019 · 11:52

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Philosophy & ethicsPure mathematicsinterview

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters recommend it as a thoughtful and nuanced take on the philosophy of mathematics.

What it is

Gregory Chaitin is interviewed on Closer To Truth about whether mathematics is invented or discovered. He gives a nuanced view that ties the question to the nature of reality.

Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2020 to 2021.

What Hacker News said

Strong rec skoodge · 2021-10 · on “Platonism in the Philosophy of Mathematics (2018)”

Gregory Chaitin has an interesting take on this: "The only place where medieval theology survives is pure math." [this video] (The whole interview is actually quite nuanced on the question of whether math is discovered or invented and well worth a watch. There are also interviews with other mathematicians and physicists in the series, for example with Roger Penrose, but most other researchers seem to hold a rather dogmatic and platonist view, which is why I found Chaitin's perspective refreshing.)

Cites throw0101a · 2020-04 · on “Roger Penrose – Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered? [video]”

Entire playlist: * [LINK] Gregory Chaitin was interesting as well: * [this video] The (apocryphal?) story about Godel not believing in empirical science and only in a priori truths was interesting.

Cites seg_lol · 2020-10 · on “Programming language notation is a barrier to entry”

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