20160319 (J)
Journal: March 19, 2016
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Idea of Time                        Language                        Epistemology

Math: I opened my journal after a long pause to record a thought about math. I couldn’t help but notice the same word in the title of the previous entry, 3½ months ago. I seem to be stuck on math. Anyway, my current thought:

Math is such that the interval between any 2 numbers can be divided into an infinite number of intervals, and so on to infinity. That is the essence of “continuous” math. Many Neo-Platonists (I am much attracted by their allure) claim math is the “foundation” of reality, or at least our imperfect access to it. Thus reality is best described, again imperfectly, by the finite set of “math numbers we have assigned to our observable universe. But since an infinite number of numbers exists between any two numbers, the full math description of the universe is available between any two arbitrary numbers. So an infinite raised to the infinite “real” description are available by scaling the top and bottom definitions of the scale used for a particular purpose, or the patterns one tries to communicate with words about math or math itself. Now I will read what I wrote in December.

Yep, still seems true. However I am often of the opinion that change (not growth alone but in balance with decay) is the only constant, even intellectual understanding which has hardly passed the test of time.