A large human figure materializes in the room. He is a man wearing a chiton
and a pileus
coprigli to the head. Around him, suspended in air, some geometric figures: a tetrahedron
a
staff and a triangle. The man begins to declaim with a booming voice: From the depths of Hades
angrily crossed mighty
wandering the streets and these parts often
found tarry
D: (recovered from the trauma can timidly uttering a word) that beautiful verse! Excuse me, but who are you?
P: Pythagoras of Samos. Very pleased!
D: (with dreamy eyes) Pythagoras!? The great philosopher ... The great mathematician .. What's theorem!? What the school of Crotone!? What I do not eat the beans!?
P: (interrupting sharply)
Please! Do not even mention abominable legume.
D: (puzzled) I'm sorry. But this prohibition interests me. I would explain the reason for this idiosyncrasy? Many scholars have proposed several hypotheses. I guess that the connection to the world of the dead, and the decomposition of impurity.
P: (mandatory) But as dead, but as decomposition: Never heard of favism!? And besides that ... Oh well, never mind.
However, they are not returned dall'Ade to discuss that with her nasty legume.
D: No, never mind, sorry again. So what is the reason for his return among the living? By the way, I guess this is the number of Hades. Since your mystical number attributed to a quasi-divine ....
P: (categorical) No! It was Ade's all!
The reason is that I have heard of this new development "
cognitive science of mathematics."
D: (forward to showing off) Ah, yes I heard about it. I find this an interesting approach ....
P: (interrupting) Look! I managed to endure
Hilbert and his bizarre
formalism. The mathematics is reduced to a play, according to Herr Professor Hilbert! A play where they become the string of symbols following the rules. Yes! Sudoku! But do me the pleasure Herr Professor!
D: Ah, she is delighted with sudoku? I did not think that the play was even known in Hades ...
P: (interrupting again) I was able to withstand
Frege and Russell
with their ambitious and flawed
logicism. The
number can be reduced to logic, Frege says! And
Sir Bertrand Russell is ready to develop the "bright idea"! Luckily it was then that the development to highlight the absurdity. And
Sir Bertrand Russell thought it well to devote more fruitfully pacifism.
D: Well yes, but the contribution of Russell goes anyway ...
P: I endured Brouwer and His
intuzionismo . Although, just between us, was perhaps the best of the interpretations that I mentioned. Also because Brouwer liked the statement of
Kronecker: "The natural numbers
come from God, everything else is the work of man . And it is unnecessary to point out that this aphorism also like very much to me.
D: Mah, however, intuition is not then I've had this great number of followers ...
P: not continue to interrupt me! As I said, barely in all three cases I was able to suppress the urge to return to the world to combat the emergence of these "schools". But when I got word of this new "science Cognitive mathematics "and especially the work of George Lakoff
and Rafael E. Núñez , Where Mathematics Comes From
-" Where does the math! "You see!?
Where does the math! - Well, at that point I no longer resisted.
D: Excuse me, but the book is 2000. Why is it that served more than ten years to decide to return?
P: Look, but she is a bit 'cheeky! we Mica Internet Hades! There we had, but then came the decree
Pisistratu that obliges us to provide a document to be able to connect. Document that Charon refuses to release.
And also my younger rival Plato has spent a lot to dissuade me from returning to the world. "But never mind," he said, "but let's'. So those are just shadows. Not worth it."
"And no!" I say! You can not write such a book and expect to get away with it!
D: .... but perhaps it might make sense to ask where it comes from mathematics.
P: But which way?! It is obvious that the numbers are divine creations. In fact I'll tell you more.
The number itself is a deity. And the whole universe is a consequence. Tut is Nu-to-me-ro! argue, as Lakoff and Núñez, who
Numbers and mathematics are all a product of the human cognitive is a real nonsense! "
the number would be a creation of our mind generated by the experience of counting objects ," say these "cognitive". Generated by the so-called
subitizzazione . But what an ugly word! And consequently the number
not have a real existence outside the human brain .
D: (urgent) Yes, they also say
math works for describing the universe as the universe itself would guide the evolution of the brain to form a effective investigative tool ...
P: Well, then I
challenge you to show me that these cognitive the number does not exist outside the human brain !
D: (brooding) Uhm, knows that his challenge reminds me a little 'the metaphor of Russell's Teapot
?
P: How dare ...
D: (interrupting) And then, everything is about the number
. This was the motto of the Pythagoreans, if not mistaken.
P: Sure!
Q: And number the Pythagoreans meant whole numbers, no?
P: Whole and relationships between whole, to be precise.
Q: I understand . But I do not remember a thing. How is it that the question of risolveste then
root of 2?
P: (with a grimace of pain) Aahh!
A chasm suddenly opens in the floor of the room. Flames come out of different parts. There is a growing fire, appear Tisiphone, fins and Crone, the three furies. Pythagoras seize and sink with him to Hades.
