Mathematicism

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Mathematicism is any opinion, viewpoint, school of thought, or philosophy that states that everything can be described/defined/modelled ultimately by mathematics, or that the universe and reality (both material and mental/spiritual) are fundamentally/fully/only mathematical, i.e. that 'everything is mathematics'.

Overview[]

Mathematicism is a form of rationalist idealist or mentalist/spiritualist monism. The idea started in the West with ancient Greece's Pythagoreanism, and continued in other rationalist idealist schools of thought such as Platonism.[1] The term 'mathematicism' has additional meanings among Cartesian idealist philosophers and mathematicians, such as describing the ability and process to study reality mathematically.[2][3]

Mathematicism includes (but is not limited to) the following (chronological order):

  • Pythagoreanism (Pythagoras said 'All things are numbers,' 'Number(s) rule(s) all')
  • Platonism (paraphrases Pythagoras's mathematicism)
  • Neopythagoreanism
  • Neoplatonism (brought Aristotelean mathematical logic to Platonism)
  • Cartesianism (René Descartes applied mathematical reasoning to philosophy)[3]
  • Leibnizianism (Dr. Gottfried Leibniz was a mathematician)
  • Alain Badiou, MA's philosophy
  • Physicist Dr. Max Tegmark's mathematical universe hypothesis (MUH) described as Pythagoreanism–Platonism
  • 'Philosophical mathematics' systems described by several authors, such as Tim Maudlin's project aiming at constructing 'a rigorous mathematical structure using primitive terms that give a natural fit with physics' and investigating 'why mathematics should provide such a powerful language for describing the physical world.'[4] According to Maudlin, 'the most satisfying possible answer to such a question is: Because the physical world literally has a mathematical structure.'[4]
  • Mike Hockney's & Dr. Thomas Stark's Neopythagorean-Neoplatonist-Leibnizian mathematical reality theory (philosophical/ontological mathematics)[5] (several authors use the term ‘ontological mathematics.’)
  • Morgue's Ontological Mathematics: The Science of the Future (2019).

See also[]

  • Physics envy, a symptom of mathematicism
  • Modern Platonism
  • Pancomputationalism
  • Digital Physics
  • Digital Philosophy

References[]

  1. ^ Gabriel, Markus. Fields of Sense: A New Realist Ontology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Univ. Press, 2015, ch. 4. Limits of Set-Theoretical Ontology and Contemporary Nihilism.
  2. ^ Sasaki, Chikara, Descartes’s Mathematical Thought, Springer, 2013, p. 283.
  3. ^ a b Gilson, Étienne. The Unity of Philosophical Experience. San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1999, p. 133.
  4. ^ a b Maudlin, Tim. New Foundations for Physical Geometry: The Theory of Linear Structures. Oxford University Press. 2014, p. 52.
  5. ^ Hockney, Mike. The God Series. Hyperreality Books, 2015. 32 vols.

External links[]

  • "mathematicism". Britannica.
  • "mathematicism". Collins Dictionary.
  • "mathematicism". Oxford Living Dictionary.
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