Platonism in the Philosophy of Mathematics (2018)
Mathematical platonism is ridiculous quasi-religious mumbo-jumbo that keeps philosophers employed.<p>You&#x27;ve only ever explained a circle to other humans. You&#x27;ve only ever learned about circles from other humans, or artifacts (not circles!) authored by humans.<p>No human has seen a perfect mathematical circle with their senses, because they don&#x27;t exist as physical objects outside of our skulls. They exist as physical objects inside our skulls in the form of neural correlates and latent representations.<p>A circle is like a meme. It&#x27;s compelling because it&#x27;s so simple (to us anyway). But, try to really explain a mathematical circle to a six year old and especially how it is different from the representation of a circle that you&#x27;ve just drawn. Watch even a smart kid struggle a bit with this, before getting it. It&#x27;s not as simple as we might think, having mastered the concept. That doesn&#x27;t mean it has an independent existence in some realm that is not embodied. It just means the concept is hard, then simple due to its abstractness and otherworldly simplicity &#x2F; power balance.<p>EDIT&gt; apostrophe