|
Non-mathematicians have been trying to impose mathematics on the real world since math was first invented.
Introduction
Non-mathematicians have been trying to impose mathematics on the real world since math was first invented.
The purity of mathematics and its self-contained provability made it seem the ideal system to impose upon any phenomena,
whether directly related to numbers or not. It lent an air of credibility and respectability to any discipline and allowed
that discipline to label itself a science.
For physics, this seemed ideal. After all, what is physics but the assignment of numbers and numerical relationships
to the world of physical behaviors?
And chemistry had not too much difficulty tapping into the world of arithmetic.
Biology also had a fair amount of computation involved in that discipline.
And so on, as astronomy, economics, psychology, sociology, each new organized system legitimized itself with its use of
mathematics -- usually arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, but also calculus, vector analysis, complex numbers,
and then the higher domain of abstract mathematics.
Even -- and, especially, theology -- would borrow from the world of mathematics to make itself more convincing.
Unfortunately, every single one of these domains that describe itself as a mathematical construct is in error.
|
