I Wonder, Wonder Who

Post       : I Wonder, Wonder Who
URL        : http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2013/02/25/i-wonder-wonder-who/
Posted     : February 25, 2013 at 11:22 am
Author     : Jon Awbrey

Re: Who Invented Boolean Functions?
At: http://rjlipton.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/who-invented-boolean-functions/

The question recalls recent discussions of discovery and invention [1] in the mathematical field,
bringing back to mind [2] questions I’ve wondered about for as long as I can remember [3].

Speaking as an unreconstructed Platonic realist, I am tempted to say that Boolean functions
are mathematical objects that cannot be invented, only discovered.  But speaking as a semiotic
constructivist I would have to concede that we do indeed invent all sorts of syntactic systems
for talking and thinking about these mathematical objects.  And some calculi can even be better
than others for the purpose of calculation, a fact that repays us to consider the alternatives
as they work out in practice.

On the third hand, I have more lately been thinking that the concepts of discovery and invention,
being human constructs like the proverbial concepts of particles and waves, may not be adequate
in the final analysis to articulate the reality of the process at hand.  It may well be that
all of these questions are more like the question —

Who discovered Orion in the night sky?

***

[1] http://cameroncounts.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/discovery-and-invention/
[2] http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2013/01/21/platos-puppet-returns/
[3] http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2012/10/12/ask-meno-questions/

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