Comments

  • How do you interpret nominalism?
    That is one single nominalist out of the several nominalists. Stop misrepresenting the view that you found out about by reading a Redditpedia article two hours ago.
    And your criticism is spurious.
    Lionino

    Did I ask for your opinion? Stop giving unsolicited feedback. As you already know, yours is not appreciated.
  • How do you interpret nominalism?
    Mathematical nominalism seems to be an aberration.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominalism

    Leśniewski denied the existence of the empty set and held that any singleton was identical to the individual inside it.

    If that is true, then Von Neumann ordinals cannot exist. Example 3 = {{},{{}},{{},{{}}}}. It wouldn't work because it would be reduced to the empty set which does not even exist according to Leśniewski, So, that view is very unproductive.

    Another gem in nominalist absurdity:

    The principle of extensionality in set theory assures us that any matching pair of curly braces enclosing one or more instances of the same individuals denote the same set. Hence {a, b}, {b, a}, {a, b, a, b} are all the same set. For Goodman and other proponents of mathematical nominalism,[30] {a, b} is also identical to {a, {b} }, {b, {a, b} }, and any combination of matching curly braces and one or more instances of a and b, as long as a and b are names of individuals and not of collections of individuals.

    Structure is arguably more important than what individuals are contained in the structure. According to the structuralist ontology of mathematics, structure is even the only thing that matters. That is also what the Von Neumann ordinals actually suggest. Therefore, Goodman's views look very unproductive.

    In the foundations of mathematics, nominalism has come to mean doing mathematics without assuming that sets in the mathematical sense exist. In practice, this means that quantified variables may range over universes of numbers, points, primitive ordered pairs, and other abstract ontological primitives, but not over sets whose members are such individuals. Only a small fraction of the corpus of modern mathematics can be rederived in a nominalistic fashion.

    Not only this view rejects the admiral ship of mathematics proper, i.e. set theory, but it also makes any definition of truth impossible, because that requires at least some fragment of set theory.

    Nominalism looks like a complete aberration in mathematics.

    I do not know what kind of absurdities nominalism leads in other fields, but I am absolutely not impressed with its abysmal performance in mathematics. Mathematical nominalism looks like a smorgasbord of bad ideas.
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic

    Concerning Cantor, Gödel, and Turing, I have some kind of morbid fascination for what I consider to be a form of disaster tourism.

    It is akin to a guided tour around Chernobyl reactor number four. It leads to the very fault lines in the tectonic plates in the foundation of things, which are indeed fiendishly ugly.

    Sometimes, it is even difficult to believe that it is all true. It often gives the sensation that "it cannot be that bad?".

    Sometimes, I don't really get it, or not immediately. At that point, I know that I am close to understanding something that is even worse than all the bad stuff that I have come across already.

    I cannot stop because I like too much playing with metaphysical fire. If you have the sensation that you are about to discover the true secret name of Satan, would you stop or would you keep going?
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic
    So, what could falsify the thesis you're proposing in this thread? What could someone point to, to demonstrate that your contention 'Mathematical truth is chaotic' is false?Wayfarer

    If you demonstrate that Cantor's theorem is false. (the existence of countable and uncountable infinity)
    If you demonstrate that Gödel's theorem is false. (incompleteness)
    If you demonstrate that Tarski's theorem is false. (undefinability of the truth)
    If you demonstrate that Turing's theorem is false. (halting problem)
    If you demonstrate that Carnap's theorem is false. (diagonal lemma)
    and so on.

    These theorems are all interrelated. Demonstrate one flaw in one of their proofs. One is probably enough, because one flawed theorem will be enough grounds to demonstrate the falsity of all other ones.

    In another paper, Yanofsky argues that it is Cantor's theorem that is at the core of it all:

    https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0305282

    "You cannot create an onto mapping between a set and its power set."

    Until I ran into Yanofsky's other paper, I used to think that Carnap's theorem was the real culprit:

    "For any property of logic sentences, there always exists a true sentence that does not have it, or a false sentence that has it, or both."

    My intuition says that Yanofsky is probably right, and that it is Cantor's theorem that is at the root of it all, but I am currently still struggling with the details of what he writes.

    In the paper about the chaos in the truth about the natural numbers, Yanofsky argues that:

    If you try to express all the truth about the natural numbers, you are effectively trying to create an onto mapping between the natural numbers and its power set, the real numbers, in violation of Cantor's theorem. That is why most of this truth is simply ineffable, and a fortiori, unprovable, and therefore, unpredictable.
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic
    Isn’t that just an example of Kant’s ‘concepts without percepts are empty?Wayfarer

    When Kant writes about philosophy of the mind:

    Intuition and concepts … constitute the elements of all our cognition, so that neither concepts without intuition corresponding to them in some way nor intuition without concepts can yield a cognition. Thoughts without [intensional] content (Inhalt) are empty (leer), intuitions without concepts are blind (blind). It is, therefore, just as necessary to make the mind’s concepts sensible—that is, to add an object to them in intuition—as to make our intuitions understandable—that is, to bring them under concepts. These two powers, or capacities, cannot exchange their functions. The understanding can intuit nothing, the senses can think nothing. Only from their unification can cognition arise. (A50–51/B74–76)

    I generally refuse to engage, if only, because philosophy of the mind is almost never falsifiable. That is why I ignore a good part of the text in "Critique der reinen Vernunft". If what Kant says, is simply not actionable, I will just generously concede the point to him. What else can I do?

    In this regard, about similar theories, Karl Popper writes in "Science as falsification":

    I found that those of my friends who were admirers of Marx, Freud, and Adler, were
    impressed by a number of points common to these theories, and especially by their
    apparent explanatory power. These theories appear to be able to explain practically
    everything that happened within the fields to which they referred. The study of any
    of them seemed to have the effect of an intellectual conversion or revelation, open
    your eyes to a new truth hidden from those not yet initiated. Once your eyes were
    thus opened you saw confirmed instances everywhere: the world was full of
    verifications of the theory. Whatever happened always confirmed it. Thus its truth
    appeared manifest; and unbelievers were clearly people who did not want to see the
    manifest truth; who refuse to see it, either because it was against their class interest,
    or because of their repressions which were still "un-analyzed" and crying aloud for
    treatment.

    The most characteristic element in this situation seemed to me the incessant stream of
    confirmations, of observations which "verified" the theories in question; and this
    point was constantly emphasize by their adherents. A Marxist could not open a
    newspaper without finding on every page confirming evidence for his interpretation
    of history; not only in the news, but also in its presentation — which revealed the
    class bias of the paper — and especially of course what the paper did not say. The
    Freudian analysts emphasized that their theories were constantly verified by their
    "clinical observations." As for Adler, I was much impressed by a personal
    experience. Once, in 1919, I reported to him a case which to me did not seem
    particularly Adlerian, but which he found no difficulty in analyzing in terms of his
    theory of inferiority feelings, Although he had not even seen the child. Slightly
    shocked, I asked him how he could be so sure. "Because of my thousandfold
    experience," he replied; whereupon I could not help saying: "And with this new case,
    I suppose, your experience has become thousand-and-one-fold.

    My opinion about "Critique of Pure Reason" is pretty much the same as what Popper writes about Marx, Freud, and Adler. The number of falsifiable points in what Kant writes, is very, very limited. Still, when Kant -- very rarely -- takes the risk of saying something that is actually falsifiable, it always turns out to be false.
  • Even programs have free will
    "Penrose argues that human consciousness is non-algorithmic, and thus is not capable of being modeled by a conventional Turing machine, which includes a digital computer."fishfry

    I believe that the soul is non-algorithmic.

    Concerning "human consciousness", I don't know how much of it is just mechanical. The term is too vague for that purpose. A good part of the brain can only be deemed to be a machine, i.e. a biotechnological device, albeit a complex one, of which we do not understand the technology, if only, because we did not design it by ourselves.

    But then again, even if the brain were entirely mechanical, its theory is undoubtedly incomplete, which ensures that most of its truth is unpredictable.

    Even things without a soul can have an incomplete theory and therefore be fundamentally unpredictable.
  • Even programs have free will
    IOW the owners of oracle could just tell it to lie to Thwarter.Bylaw

    There is an infinite number of ways to write the same thwarter program. In order to know that the source code does indeed represent a thwarter, oracle needs to be able to prove that this alternative is equivalent to thwarter.

    That is the same problem as proving that two lambda expressions are equivalent.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_calculus

    There is no algorithm that takes as input any two lambda expressions and outputs TRUE or FALSE depending on whether one expression reduces to the other. More precisely, no computable function can decide the question. This was historically the first problem for which undecidability could be proven.

    Hence, oracle won't know that he is looking at the source code of an alternative version of thwarter.

    Therefore, the only solution would be for oracle to lie all the time. Consequently, oracle won't be able to correctly predict the output of a program that does the opposite of thwarter and that just prints oracle's prediction as output.
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic
    No. PA can be built from ZF but not the converse.Lionino

    Not ZF but ZF-inf. It requires removing and denying the axiom of infinity.

    https://projecteuclid.org/journals/notre-dame-journal-of-formal-logic/volume-48/issue-4/On-Interpretations-of-Arithmetic-and-Set-Theory/10.1305/ndjfl/1193667707.full

    On Interpretations of Arithmetic and Set Theory
    Richard Kaye, Tin Lok Wong
    2007

    This paper starts by investigating Ackermann's interpretation of finite set theory in the natural numbers. We give a formal version of this interpretation from Peano arithmetic (PA) to Zermelo-Fraenkel set theory with the infinity axiom negated (ZF−inf) and provide an inverse interpretation going the other way.

    Impossible, those are two mutually exclusive views.Lionino

    Of course, they are mutually exclusive. Still, they both provide a perfectly legitimate ontology for mathematics. Similarly, you can build a society on capitalism or on communism. They are both mutually exclusive.
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic
    So why do you quote something that is seriously incorrect?TonesInDeepFreeze

    The quote is extreme.

    I don't think, however, that it is incorrect.

    If mathematics is "just string manipulation" then it is indeed "about nothing". As I have already acknowledged, other views on the matter are also viable.

    Furthermore, besides formalism, there are several other competing ontologies for mathematics. They all turn out to be simultaneously correct as well. For example, Platonism is not wrong either. It is just another way of looking at things.

    Similarly, concerning competing mathematical theories, PA and ZF-inf are two completely different ways of looking at things. "Everything is a natural number" versus "Everything is a set".

    However, they turn out to be perfectly bi-interpretable.

    You can express natural numbers as sets, and arithmetic on natural numbers as set operations, and then everything you say about natural numbers, you can effectively say them about these sets. The reverse works fine as well.

    Extreme formalism turns out to be a metaphysically useful view.
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic
    Whatever the relative merits, do you see my point that the quote is incorrect, since there are approaches to formalism that don't view mathematics as being about nothing?TonesInDeepFreeze

    Yes, of course. Hardy famously said:

    “Real” mathematics is almost wholly “useless” whereas useful mathematics is “intolerably dull.”

    I would add to what Hardy said, that "useful" mathematics has absolutely zero metaphysical implications. That is why it is "intolerably dull".

    Mathematics proper is indeed not necessarily about nothing. That is why it is so boring.
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic
    You may hold that the view has merits. I'm only pointing out that formalism is not confined to that view.TonesInDeepFreeze

    The reason why moderate formalism has less merit that the most extreme take on the matter, is actually to be expected. If you abstract away almost everything, then the very little that is still left, will indeed apply to pretty much everything.
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic
    That is extreme formalism. It does not speak for all formalists.TonesInDeepFreeze

    It is actually an incredibly productive view. The more you insist that it is about nothing at all, the more it starts revealing secrets about everything. It is truly mind blowing.
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic
    That seems okay as a broad synopsis.TonesInDeepFreeze

    There are surprising and unexpected connections between the foundational crisis in mathematics and fundamental metaphysics.

    In principle, mathematics proper is about nothing at all:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formalism_(philosophy_of_mathematics)

    According to formalism, the truths expressed in logic and mathematics are not about numbers, sets, or triangles or any other coextensive subject matter — in fact, they aren't "about" anything at all.

    If you dig into the foundational crisis of mathematics, however, it suddenly starts talking about deep metaphysical issues. The mathematical crisis arose out of profound paradoxes:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_mathematics

    This led, near the end of the 19th century, to a series of paradoxical mathematical results that challenged the general confidence in reliability and truth of mathematical results. This has been called the foundational crisis of mathematics. The resolution of this crisis involved the rise of a new mathematical discipline called mathematical logic that includes set theory, model theory, proof theory, computability and computational complexity theory, and more recently, several parts of computer science.

    How can something that is essentially about nothing at all, suddenly make a U-turn, and give answers on the fundamental nature of everything?

    The mathematical crisis turns out to have massive implications for the following issues in metaphysics:

    - What is truth?
    - What is the connection between a truth-bearer and a truthmaker?
    - What is free will?
    - Is the universe predetermined?
    - Is the universe part of a larger multiverse?
    - Is there a heaven and a hell?

    The mathematical crisis even puts into question the most fundamental and seemingly unassailable laws of logic:

    - What is actually "identity", since the law of identity does not always hold?
    - Why is the law of the excluded middle (LEM) not always legitimate?
    - Since identity and the LEM are in question, is even the law of noncontradiction actually circumstantial?

    The mathematical crisis also shows that existing answers in metaphysics are largely unsatisfactory:

    - It shines another light on Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. Kant has probably got it mostly wrong.
    - It certainly proves the positivists wrong.

    After more than a century, the implications of the mathematical crisis have not been digested in metaphysics. There is pretty much no awareness of its metaphysical impact. In my opinion, this is because people in both fields almost never talk to each other. One reason for this, is the fact that most publications on the mathematical crisis are written in a language impenetrable to outsiders.
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic
    Agreed. However, the more precise the definition is being phrased, the more impenetrable the explanation tends to be. Therefore, in a multidisciplinary context, it may be preferable to just give the gist of the explanation.

    So, for example, "soundness means: provable => true" is just the gist of it. In fact, it seems to be ok to phrase it like that:

    https://people.math.ethz.ch/~halorenz/4students/Literatur/Semantic.pdf

    Soundness Theorem

    A logical calculus is called sound, if all what we can prove is valid (i.e., true), which implies that we cannot derive a contradiction. The following theorem shows that First-Order Logic is sound.

    https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs2800/2017fa/lectures/lec38-sound.html

    In the last two lectures, we have looked at propositional formulas from two perspectives: truth and provability. Our goal now is to (meta) prove that the two interpretations match each other. We will prove:

    Soundness: if something is provable, it is valid. If ⊢φ then ⊨φ.

    No, the mapping is from the symbols of the language:TonesInDeepFreeze

    That is how it is technically achieved. I was trying to point out that it achieves the same goal as stated in the correspondence theory of truth:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Correspondence_theory_of_truth

    In metaphysics and philosophy of language, the correspondence theory of truth states that the truth or falsity of a statement is determined only by how it relates to the world and whether it accurately describes (i.e., corresponds with) that world.[1]

    Correspondence theories claim that true beliefs and true statements correspond to the actual state of affairs. This type of theory attempts to posit a relationship between thoughts or statements on one hand, and things or facts on the other.

    Technically, model theory will map the symbols. However, the actual purpose of doing that is to achieve what is described in the correspondence theory of truth.

    The following explanation about correspondence in model theory will probably be deemed impenetrable in a multidisciplinary context:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_theory

    A signature or language is a set of non-logical symbols such that each symbol is either a constant symbol, or a function or relation symbol with a specified arity. A structure is a set M together with interpretations of each of the symbols of the signature as relations and functions on M.

    A structure N is said to model a set of first-order sentences T in the given language if each sentence in T is true in N with respect to the interpretation of the signature previously specified for N.

    But then again, in my opinion, the correspondence theory of truth is perfectly fine to describe the gist of how model theory sees the relationship between theory and model.

    a model is not just a universeTonesInDeepFreeze

    Well, I glossed over that, without insisting too much. If you give the technical explanation of what exactly is missing, then pretty much nobody will keep reading in a multidisciplinary context.

    It says that for certain formal interpreted languages, there is no predicate in the language that defines the set of sentences true in the interpretation.TonesInDeepFreeze

    I simplified the following:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarski%27s_undefinability_theorem

    Let L be the language of first-order arithmetic.

    Tarski's undefinability theorem: There is no L-formula True(n) that defines T*. That is, there is no L-formula True(n) such that for every L-sentence A , True(g(A)) ⟺ A holds in N.

    To:

    There is no True(n) predicate possible.
    (in PA or similar)

    Again, the complete statement above is probably too much in a multidisciplinary environment. It will be deemed impenetrable.
  • Even programs have free will
    I try to keep an open mind and take the good with the bad of all, say, a bit eccentric posters. I hope that is not too uncharitable to Tarskian. Am I being fair?fishfry

    I guess so.

    As you have probably noticed, @Lionino does not talk about metaphysics or about mathematics but about me. That is apparently his obsession. He incessantly talks about me, very much like I incessantly talk about Godel. I don't know if I should feel flattered.

    But then again, the metaphysical implications of the foundational crisis in mathematics, are truly fascinating.

    Mathematics proper has exactly zero metaphysical implications:

    According to formalism, the truths expressed in logic and mathematics are not about numbers, sets, or triangles or any other coextensive subject matter — in fact, they aren't "about" anything at all.

    How can something that "isn't about anything at all" suddenly become about the fundamental nature of everything?
  • Even programs have free will
    But given that, my original point stands. That programs can't have free will. And I hope you agree that humans being deterministic would not contradict that point.fishfry

    I think that having "free will" versus having a "soul" are not the same thing.

    As I see it, the soul is an object in religion while free will is an object in mathematics.

    I see free will and incompleteness as equivalent. I don't see why they wouldn't be.
  • Mathematical truth is not orderly but highly chaotic
    "Truth" is negotiable it seems. The word should be avoided in mathematical discussions.jgill

    Well, no. The term "truth" should be used in a way that is compatible with its model-theoretical definition, which is in fact not particularly negotiable.

    In model theory, truth is a correspondentist notion.

    A fact is true because it is part of a particular collection of truth, i.e. a "model", an "interpretation" -- or if the operations supported are irrelevant-- a "universe".

    If such "model" "interprets" a theory, then every statement that is provable from this theory will be true in the "model", i.e. soundness theorem:

    soundness theorem: provable ==> true

    So, the correspondentist mapping of truth occurs between theory and "model" (or "universe").

    Concerning Tarski's undefinability, it doesn't say that truth does not exist. It just says that true(n) is not a legitimate predicate.
  • Even programs have free will
    Yet this is also the general issue that Yanofsky is talking about as this is found on all of these theorems.ssu

    Yanofsky phrases a generalized Cantor theorem in terms of the sets Y, T and the functions α(x), f(x), g(x,y). I still do not fully grasp the connection between the symbols that he uses. I suspect that it is indeed equivalent to Cantor's theorem but I don't see how exactly.
  • The essence of religion
    Spirituality is an intellectual and existential struggle, or, it should be.Constance

    In my opinion, rationality is a tool and spirituality is another one. If your only tool is a hammer, then the entire world will start looking like a nail.

    We know very well that rationality cannot deal with the question about the meaning of life. It would be the same as asking a computer why he exists. Humans can answer that question. The computer cannot, at least not rationally. The computer would have to ask us, because only humans know the answer to that question.

    Concerning the meaning of life, we would only be able to rationally answer the question, if we had created it. So, since we didn't, we can try to ask the one who did. That is not a rational endeavor but a spiritual one.

    For most, very little. meaning one either retreats beneath sand of old stories and rituals or one just rejects the sense of the confrontation, like Wittgenstein.Constance

    I think that I agree with Witggenstein on this matter. There is no confrontation. Spirituality is the solution for a problem that rationality cannot solve.

    Anybody trying to determine rationally if God exists or not, is wasting his time. The correct question is: Does faith in God give you spiritual satisfaction? If yes, then you are one of the lucky ones, blessed with the ability to stave off the absurdity of meaninglessness. If not, then you are unlucky because you will almost surely fail to find a satisfying alternative.
  • Ambiguous Teller Riddle
    For the afficionados, a simple solution strategy implemented in javascript:

    #!/usr/bin/env qjs
    
    //it is possible to generate the solution space automatically
    //but it is so small that it is easier to just supply it manually
    var solutionSpace= [
    			{"A":"truth", "B":"liar","C":"random"},
    			{"A":"liar","B":"truth","C":"random"},
    			{"A":"random","B":"truth","C":"liar"},
    			{"A":"random","B":"liar","C":"truth"},
    			{"A":"truth","B":"random","C":"liar"},
    			{"A":"liar","B":"random","C":"truth" }
    		   ];
    
    //constraint.index is just for the purpose of reference
    var constraints = [ 
    	{"index":"a","who_says":"A","B_is":"truth"},
    	{"index":"b","who_says":"B", "B_is":"random"},
    	{"index":"c","who_says":"C", "B_is":"liar"}
    	];
    
    //we iterate over every potential solution in the solution space
    for(var solution of solutionSpace) {
    	var B=solution["B"];
        console.log("--------------------------");
        //A and C are just for printing the potential solution
        //they are not needed for the algorithm
    	var A=solution["A"];
    	var C=solution["C"];
        console.log("checking: "+A+" "+B+" "+C);
        //we assume that the solution is valid, until it isn't anymore.
        var abort_solution=false;
        //now we check every constraint for the current potential solution
        for(var constraint of constraints) {
            var index=constraint["index"];
            var who_says=constraint["who_says"];
            var B_is=constraint["B_is"];
            //check 1: truth is not allowed to lie about B
            if(solution[who_says]=="truth" && B!==B_is) {
                console.log("violation of constraint ("+index+
                    "); truth is not allowed to lie and say that "+B+" is "+B_is);
                abort_solution=true;
                break;
            }
            //check 2: liar is not allowed to tell the truth about
            if(solution[who_says]=="liar" && B==B_is) {
                console.log("violation of constraint ("+index+
                    "); liar is not allowed to tell the truth and say that "+B+" is "+B_is);
                abort_solution=true;
                break;
            }
            //we cannot check random; so, no check for that one
        }
        if(!abort_solution) console.log("found legitimate solution");
    }
    console.log("--------------------------");
    

    The output:

    $ ./truth-liar-random.js
    --------------------------
    checking: truth liar random
    violation of constraint (a); truth is not allowed to lie and say that liar is truth
    --------------------------
    checking: liar truth random
    violation of constraint (a); liar is not allowed to tell the truth and say that truth is truth
    --------------------------
    checking: random truth liar
    violation of constraint (b); truth is not allowed to lie and say that truth is random
    --------------------------
    checking: random liar truth
    found legitimate solution
    --------------------------
    checking: truth random liar
    violation of constraint (a); truth is not allowed to lie and say that random is truth
    --------------------------
    checking: liar random truth
    violation of constraint (c); truth is not allowed to lie and say that random is liar
    --------------------------

    It is not limited to first-order logic, because that would disallow the use of the arrays and objects in the solutionSpace and constraints variables. So, it makes use of second-order logic.
  • Ambiguous Teller Riddle
    How First Order Logic achieves this is beyond my pay grade.RussellA

    There are multiple solution strategies possible, none of which, however, naturally translate to first-order logic, because the problem is most naturally expressed by using three-tuples, which therefore require second-order logic.

    ---------------------------------------------------------
    - three persons (A,B,C)
    - three identities (truth,liar,random)

    - three constraints:

    a) A says that B=truth
    b) B says that B=random
    c) C says that B=liar
    ---------------------------------------------------------

    There are 3!, i.e. 6 ways of assigning the three identities to the three persons.

    (A,B,C) must be one of { 1:(truth,liar,random), 2:(liar,truth,random), 3:(random,truth,liar), 4:(random,liar,truth), 5:(truth,random,liar), 6:(liar,random,truth) }

    The following is a very simple solution strategy.

    Check each three-tuple one by one, and verify if it is compatible with the three constraints:

    Example:

    1:(truth,liar,random)
    a) truth says that liar=truth => false, abort
    It cannot be 1:

    2:(liar,truth,random)
    a) liar says that truth=truth. => false, abort
    It cannot be 2:

    ... and so on ...

    Eventually, there will only be one three-tuple that survives scrutiny. There are obviously other solution strategies, i.e. algorithms, possible but they are in my impression not particularly faster or easier.
  • Even programs have free will
    Btw, have you read Yanofsky's A Universal Approach to Self-Referential Paradoxes, Incompleteness and Fixed Points that we discussed on another thread, should be important to this toossu

    Yanofsky seems to say that all paradoxes listed in his paper are somehow the consequence of Cantor's theorem. Even though I understand Cantor's theorem as described in wikipedia:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantor%27s_theorem

    Theorem (Cantor) — Let f be a map from set A to its power set P ( A ). Then f : A → P ( A ) is not surjective. As a consequence, card ⁡ ( A ) < card ⁡ ( P ( A ) ) holds for any set A.

    I cannot fully grasp why it is supposedly the same as how Yanofsky phrases it:

    https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0305282

    Theorem 1 (Cantor’s Theorem) If Y is a set and there exists a function α : Y → Y without a fixed point (for all y ∈ Y , α(y) != y), then for all sets T and for all functions f : T × T → Y there exists a function g : T → Y that is not representable by f i.e. such that for all t ∈ T: g(−) != f (−, t).

    In my impression, f(x,y) is Cantor's table while g(r) is the value in the diagonal that is not in the table, or something like that. Concerning Y, a derangement α (permutation without fixed points) must exist. I can't connect it, though. He does not mention Cantor's power set. His wording for the theorem seems to condense Cantor's diagonalization proof right into the statement of the theorem itself. My intuition says that Yanofsky's version is undoubtedly correct, but I don't fully master its construction.

    While Cantor says something simple, i.e. any onto mapping of a set onto its power set will fail, Yanofsky says something much more general that I do not fully grasp.
  • The essence of religion
    So your question, what is the true meaning of religion, is itself an expression of the basic religious impulse to fill the symbolic space. In this case, the space behind "religion".

    And this is why science is a competitor to religion. Not because the mechanistic accounts of how things work differ. But because it offers a parallel, and empirically grounded, vision of what explaining the meaning of things looks like. The tree isn't just the tree we see. It is the vast scientific story that explains it.
    hypericin

    Superficially, science can indeed appear to fill the symbolic space.

    That is why scientism exists as an ideology, i.e. a pseudo-religion. In times of rapid scientific progress, it is even quite popular.

    However, it only works for people who do not understand science, so that it remains mysterious.

    As soon as you somewhat understand the limitations of science, as soon as you understand that it cannot explain what you had hoped that it would, it stops being useful as a religion.

    As the unfilled void reappears with a vengeance -- it always does -- the existence of life will appear to be meaningless. The lack of spirituality will push the unbeliever in his struggle down the path of absurdism. We were not built to live without spirituality. That is why spirituality is so universal across the globe and throughout history.
  • Even programs have free will
    I was referring to real physical systems which are not conceptualJanus

    Every collection of truth has a sound theory. However, only some part of its truth may follow from it.

    Say that a collection of truth has 5 sentences: A, B, C, D, E. From its incomplete theory only B and E necessarily follow. Therefore, A,C, and D are its unpredictable truths.

    One major problem in trying to discover this system's theory, is that some of its truth must be ignored. You cannot possibly discover its theory if you take A,C, and D into account. You must ignore it.

    The general idea in physics is that we cannot discover a theory because we can see too little. According to mathematics, they are actually wrong. It is exactly the other way around. We cannot discover a theory, because we can see too much.

    One reason why mathematics works, is because we cannot easily see its unpredictable truth. It takes a series of rather difficult hacks to even detect that it is there.
  • Even programs have free will
    I was referring to real physical systems which are not conceptual, not I was not referring to mathematical systems, which are conceptual.Janus

    The idea is that every physical system has a sound theory, albeit possibly unknown. Every collection of truth has a sound theory.

    Every claim that necessarily follows from this sound theory will be true about the physical system.

    This is even true about the entire physical universe. It is not because we do not know this theory that it does not exist.

    It makes no sense to say that the Universe, a real physical system, is incomplete, but of course our understanding of the universe is incomplete, and always will be.Janus

    The universe is not a theory. It is a collection of truth, i.e. a "model" or "interpretation" of its unknown theory.

    If its unknown theory is complete, it can predict its entire history, akin to Laplace's demon. No free will could possibly exist in it.

    If we knew its incomplete theory, we would still not be able to predict most of its truth or future. We know the theory of the natural numbers. However, because it is incomplete, we cannot explain most of its truth.

    So, the future is not comprehensively predictable, but it does not follow that it is incomplete or in possession of free will.Janus

    If some of its truth is unpredictable, its theory must be incomplete.

    The alternative would be in violation of Godel's completeness theorem. If a theory is complete, every fact in its universe is provable and therefore predictable.

    Without unpredictability, free will is not possible. Therefore, incompleteness is a firm requirement for free will.

    Free will necessarily implies incompleteness, according to the impossibilist assessment.

    You only need to discover one true sentence that is not provable from the system's theory to conclude that most of the system's truth isn't predictable.
  • Even programs have free will
    It's systems that are "incomplete": the idea makes no sense at all, but our understanding of systems.Janus

    Understanding of a system amounts to having perfect knowledge of its construction logic, i.e. its theory.

    For example, the axioms of arithmetic theory are perfectly well known. Every claim that we can prove from it, is also true in the universe of the natural numbers. However, most of the truth about the natural numbers is still unpredictable.

    So, it is not because you build a system -- and therefore know how you have built it -- that you will be able to predict its entire truth. Only some of its truth will be predictable.
  • Even programs have free will
    It should be understood here that computers cannot follow an order of "do something else".ssu

    If a program knows a list of things it can do [ A1, A2, A3, ..., An], and it receives the instruction "do something else but not Ak", then it can randomly pick any action from [A1, A2, ..., A(k-1),A(k+1) .... An] as long as it is not Ak.
  • Even programs have free will
    Ok. Oracle gives a final spoken prediction, but secretly writes down what it knows thwarter will do at that point.Patterner

    Yes, of course, Oracle can perfectly know what is truly going to happen. However, his knowledge of the truth is not actionable. What else is he going to do with it?
  • Ambiguous Teller Riddle
    (1) Person A claims person B always tells the truth.
    (2) Person B claims person B (himself) sometimes tells the truth.
    (3) Person C claims person B always lies.

    In first-order logic, you may want a predicate is(person,identity). Example, is(A,liar) evaluating to true if A is liar.

    In fact, the solution space is very small, just 3! = 6 possibilities. Therefore, brute force is a perfectly viable solution strategy:

    (truth,random,liar)

    A B C
    0 truth random liar
    1 random truth liar
    2 liar random truth
    3 random liar truth
    4 truth liar random
    5 lair truth random

    Brute force evaluation:

    0 truth random liar
    (1) truth says about random that he is truth -> false, abort

    1 random truth liar
    (1) random says about truth that he is truth -> consistent
    (2) truth says about truth that he is random -> false, abort

    2 liar random truth
    (1) liar says about random that he is truth -> consistent
    (2) random says about random that he is random -> consistent
    (3) truth says about random that he is liar -> false, abort

    3 random liar truth
    (1) random says about liar that he is truth -> consistent
    (2) liar says about liar that he is random -> consistent
    (3) truth says about liar that he is liar -> consistent
    -- this is a legitimate solution --

    4 truth liar random
    (1) truth says about liar that he is truth -> false, abort

    5 liar truth random
    (1) liar says about liar that he is truth -> consistent
    (2) truth says about truth that he is random -> false, abort

    solution predicate:

    is(person,identity) ≡ (person=A ∧ identity=random) ∨ (person=B ∧ identity=liar) ∨ (person=C ∧ identity=truth)
  • Even programs have free will
    Or, at any point, oracle might say, "I'll (app equivalent of) write it down, and, after you act, you can read it. And you'll see I predicted accurately."Patterner

    Thwarter needs a prediction as input. Otherwise it does not run.
  • Even programs have free will
    And if you say that deep down coin flips are deterministic, so are programs.fishfry

    Deep down humans could also be deterministic. As long as the theory of humans is incomplete, humans would still have free will.
  • Even programs have free will
    They... aren't that hard to avoid. You're literally not trying.flannel jesus

    The problem is that this is not the only problem. It is just one of the problems. The language in which the foundational crisis of mathematics is worded, is usually "impenetrable". So, I first need to translate it into a narrative with an oracle and a thwarter, because otherwise, it is absolutely not suitable for interdisciplinary use.

    For example, Hamkins paper:

    Tarskian, You may be interested in a recent paper by Joel David Hamkins. [...] Terrific, readable paper. Hamkins rocks.
    https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.00680

    Indeed, it is actually surprisingly readable for a paper on this subject. The following paragraph, however, is unsuitable for interdisciplinary use:

    At bottom, the logic of the argument is like this: if we had a computable way of finding whether existential statements are true, then we could iterate this with negation to also compute ∀∃ assertions, since ∀k∃n ϕ fails just in case there is some k for which the existential statement about it fails. In short, if in general existential statements are decidable, then the whole arithmetic hierarchy collapses.

    If I cannot not find an alternative way of phrasing this differently, it will be pointless to use this particular argument. Fortunately, I don't need this argument for anything.
  • Even programs have free will
    And who came up with that sentence?flannel jesus

    The real question is, who confused the vocabulary? Well, the pretty much complete absence of communication between both fields.
  • Even programs have free will
    The task given to the oracle doesn't make sense. The task given to the oracle is "predict the output of this Thw program, after you feed into the Thw program your prediction for the output of the Thw program."

    It's recursive in a way that means the oracle can't even begin.
    flannel jesus

    It is actually a description of the standard contemporary proof for Alan Turing's halting problem. The oracle must predict if thwarter will print a zero or not.

    Hamkins describes it as following:

    https://arxiv.org/pdf/2407.00680

    Namely, assume toward contradiction that the symbol-printing problem were computably decidable, and fix a method of solving this problem. Using this as a subroutine, consider the algorithm q which on input p, a program, asks whether p on input p would ever print 0 as output. If so, then q will halt immediately without printing 0; but if not, then q prints 0 immediately as output. So q has the opposite behavior on input p with respect to printing 0 as output than p has on input p. Running q on input q will therefore print 0 as output if and only if it will not, a contradiction.

    Just for the hell of it, I rewrote Hamkins wording in terms of the oracle and the thwarter:

    Namely, assume toward contradiction that the symbol-printing problem were computably decidable, and fix a method of solving this problem. Using the oracle as a subroutine, consider the thwarter program which asks to the oracle whether any program p on input p would ever print 0 as output. If the oracle answers that it will print 0, then thwarter itself will not print 0; but if the oracle says that thwarter doesn't print 0, then thwarter does print 0. Running thwarter on itself as input will therefore print 0 as output if and only if the oracle says that thwarter will not, a contradiction.
  • Even programs have free will
    You don't seem interested in trying to make yourself clear, in trying to develop a self-consistent vocabulary for your ideas. You end your post with "Sometimes it still works flawlessly. Sometimes, it doesn't." as if there's nothing at all you could do to clarify your ideas.

    Maybe there's not, maybe you can't clarify your ideas.
    flannel jesus

    There are landmines when in the combined vocabulary of both metaphysics and mathematics. It is overly optimistic to believe that you can always detect them beforehand. The sentence, Gödel proves the lack of determinism of deterministic systems, even sounds contradictory. If you are lucky, you become aware of the problem after the facts. I can certainly imagine situations in which you actually don't.
  • Even programs have free will
    When one definition of determinism is equivalent to "completeness", but then another definition allows you to say "incomplete determinism", and you put pretty close to 0 effort into explaining how that's supposed to make sense, I can't imagine I'm alone in just thinking it's all nonsense from that point on.flannel jesus

    The misalignment in vocabulary is something akin to a landmine. You become aware of the problem only after the facts. But then again, I don't think that "determinism" is a much used term in mathematics. You will mostly find the term "deterministic system".

    If you Google for "mathematics determinism", the first search result is "deterministic system":

    https://www.google.com/search?q=mathematics+determinism

    So, even Google is confused here, because "determinism" does not mean "deterministic system" in mathematics. It means "completeness".

    So, if even Google puts "pretty close to zero effort" into getting the facts straight, then it means that their 182,000 members of staff are possibly just spouting nonsense instead of properly maintaining their search engine.

    Well, the real conclusion is that playing the blame game is pointless. Looking for whom to blame is unproductive. Furthermore, it never fixes the real underlying problem. Two different backgrounds means two different vocabularies. Sometimes it still works flawlessly. Sometimes, it doesn't.
  • Even programs have free will
    seems like you're mixing vocabularies a lot here and generating a lot of unnecessary ambiguity.flannel jesus

    I am trying to point out the metaphysical implications of the foundational crisis in mathematics. That is necessarily multidisciplinary, meaning that you end up with two vocabularies that are not necessarily compatible.

    Gödel proves the lack of determinism (as in metaphysics) in particular deterministic systems (as in mathematics).

    This sounds confusing.

    This misalignment in vocabulary is, however, inevitable because people from either field rarely talk to each other or read each other's publications.
  • Even programs have free will
    Yeah, if you say determinism means completeness, then "incomplete deterministic" just sounds like "incomplete completeness". Seems like a nosnense term to me.flannel jesus

    You got caught up in the vocabulary misalignment. The phrase "incomplete deterministic system" is perfectly fine in computer science or mathematics. It means that there is nothing random in the system ("deterministic system"). However, most facts can not be predicted from its theory either ("incomplete"). This is the essence of Gödel's incompleteness theorem.
  • Even programs have free will
    So then when you were talking about incomplete determinismflannel jesus

    incomplete deterministic system.
  • Even programs have free will
    I don't think any of that goes any distance towards demonstrating what I said was incorrect. Incompatibilists say free will is incompatible with determinism, not oraclesflannel jesus

    The existence of a functioning oracle is equivalent to determinism (with the notion of determinism equivalent to the notion of completeness). The oracle fails. It doesn't function. Therefore, there is no determinism.

    Asserting incompatibilism, as a notion in metaphysics, translates into proving the impossibility of constructing an oracle, as a notion in computer science. It is effectively equivalent. The difficulty here is that we are mapping concepts from one field to another.