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A comment on Inflated Bond Ratings Helped Spur the Financial Crisis. They’re Back. Parent comment

Re:Inflated Bond Ratings Helped Spur the Financial Crisis. T... by ivalm on Thursday August 08, 2019 @03:50AM (#20642643)
I would argue mathematics isn't really a science, as it isn't outward looking to the world, rather it is a study of self-consistent rewriting rules. You can obtain any mathematical result without knowing anything about the universe (something also true for, lets say, analytic philosophy).
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Re:Inflated Bond Ratings Helped Spur the Financial Crisis. T... by jevgeni on Thursday August 08, 2019 @07:46AM (#20643590)
Sure, but then the distinction between science / not-science hasn't got that much value.

A not-science (math) is the most critical tool in the scientific toolbox, and hence contributed more to scientific progress than any isolated branch of science.

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Re:Inflated Bond Ratings Helped Spur the Financial Crisis. T... by ivalm on Thursday August 08, 2019 @11:23AM (#20645378)
Sure, natural languages also contributed "more to science" than "any isolated branch" but learning a language (for its use rather than linguistics/anthropology) isnt a science. I think it is a useful distinction.
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Re:Inflated Bond Ratings Helped Spur the Financial Crisis. T... by disgruntledphd2 on Thursday August 08, 2019 @04:57AM (#20642878)
Yeah. My personal theory is that mathematics is a language, which happens to be useful in the description of scientific phenomena.
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