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A comment on Why Mathematical Proof Is a Social Compact. Parent comment

Re:Why Mathematical Proof Is a Social Compact by hnfong on Friday September 01, 2023 @05:00AM (#37348377)
That's like claiming all historians agree that Hitler was born in 1889 ergo historians achieve consensus on results.

If you study a broad range of subjects, you'd realize in mathematics the level of convergence is quite high relative to the other subjects, even the "hard" sciences. I wouldn't say it's 100% though.

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Re:Why Mathematical Proof Is a Social Compact by paulddraper on Friday September 01, 2023 @12:29PM (#37352947)
The idea of mathematics posing a single objective truth is....mostly true but only mostly.

E.g. Axiom of Choice, ZFC, constructivism.

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ... = -1/12 [1]

[1] https://media.tenor.com/Mbl5heTtzDoAAAAC/obi-wan-kenobi-cert...

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Re:Why Mathematical Proof Is a Social Compact by hnfong on Friday September 01, 2023 @03:45PM (#37355379)
Oh, on that I totally agree.

Math kind of lost me at the uncountable sets. Given the results from Gödel, the justification of law of excluded middle really needs a serious reconsideration.

But that's why I'm not a mathematician. (I suspect this aspect of self-selection facilitates convergence, but I don't see why it wouldn't apply to almost all fields of study)

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