What is "Number"?
- Thread starter csuguy
- Start date
It's sorta like politics ... it's all about what side of zero you are on.
csuguy
Well-known member
The Berean
Well-known member
csuguy
Well-known member
That's a lot of different definitions. Which one do you think satisfies the OP (the first several do not)?
JosephR
New member
at first I would say it is as conceptual as time,but numbers in particular seem to be code or basic code. I am talking in a quantum way of course as to the building blocks of matter to coding DNA Im pretty sure some scientist said that God speaks in code,numbers,binary ect ect but I have no idea who.
csuguy
Well-known member
I believe is was Pythagoras, the ancient Greek Philosopher, who is supposed to have taught that numbers are the building blocks of reality - or something along those lines.
what do you have against the dictionary?
what does define mean?
Jedidiah
New member
Type of pattern, a simple one where only the count of things is denoted, not their arrangement or relationship or anything further than simple count.
The abstraction or concept that we've invented and named "number" is a type of pattern. In fact "number" does not exist at all apart from its name, but only exists as instantiations of the concept. Wherever and however there are "4" things for example, there is an instantation of the number four, same for five and for three, and if there is currently nowhere and nohow four of anything, then four actually only exists in concept, as a certain instantiation of the type of pattern we call number.
Huh?
Such poetry!
csuguy
Well-known member
:up:
I agree - except the part about it not indicating arrangement or relationship; this depends upon the context. A mere count is one use of numbers - but not their only use. For instance: number can be used for IDs. Each number, after all, is unique and has a well defined place in the infinite series of numbers.
Easy.
In order for us to make sense of the world we have to distinguish one thing from another.
For instance, in front of me are 2 bricks. I decide to call each of them a brick. Because I have decided that, this means that there are 2 of them.
It doesn't mean they are the same thing. One might be a big brick, another a small one. One might be a plastic brick, one might be fired brick. But the sense that I choose to make of what is there, involves me calling them the same thing. That's when I need numbers. I could decide to call them two different things. I call one of them 'Lego piece' and the other 'wall component'. I then only need the number one.
csuguy
Well-known member
nikolai_42
Well-known member
Number implies separation of some sort...whether it is separation or not I'm not certain.
This tells me more of how one might use number - vs what number is in of itself
Well, in that case you could say the same about anything. Meaning is always defined in terms of relationship. The meaning of a chair is that you sit on it. The meaning of lego is that you play with it. The meaning of number is that you count with it. There is only one thing that exists in and of itself. Have a guess! I dare you.