RT list: Relevance and Mathematical Statements?

From: mjmurphy (4mjmu@rogers.com)
Date: Mon Nov 21 2005 - 18:37:04 GMT

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    Is there any literature on the contribution of context sensitivity, pragmatic enrichment et al, to the meaning of mathematical statements? I am interested in certain remarks by J. Searle on the idea that such statements might be context sensitive with respect to methods of counting. He mentions Wittgenstein's example of counting dots in overlapping circles. There are three dots in one circle, and four in the other, but because two share the space of overlap, when you add the contents of both circles you only get five dots. Hence here 3+4=5, in this context.

    Cheers,

    M.J.Murphy



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