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gsinclairtoday at 12:38 AM1 replyview on HN

First of all, mathematics is about so much more than the area of a triangle etc. that any analogy based on such simple things is overwhelmingly likely to be too simple to be of value.

Secondly, there is no truly objective truth to the area of a triangle. At bottom, this “truth” is simply “everyone is convinced, and for good reason”.

Without persuading other people of the “truths” that you discover, there is no real mathematics.


Replies

d4v3today at 12:55 AM

> Without persuading other people of the “truths” that you discover, there is no real mathematics.

Why? If I sat around and studied math by myself and discovered something true yet not yet known but didn't share it, it's still true. Are you saying I didn't "do math" because I didn't share the result? Math exists on another plane and it has 'truths' that we haven't discovered, yet are still 'true', no?