FOM: Re: fom-digest V1 #245

[Kanovei]

Jan Mycielski of Fri, 10 Dec 1999 19:45:16 -0700 (MST): 

        But some philsophers like such biased terminologies and they 
support their pet theories and fuels empty disputations. 
        For example they say: A realist is a person who takes mathematical
objects to be real. False! A realist is a person who can distinguish
imaginary from real.

----------

"They" in the 3rd line clearly refers to philosophers in 
the 1st line. But, I am pretty sure any (educated) philosopher 
would know that a realist (philosophically) is anybody who 
accepts the independent existence of universalia, and in 
that sense a realist is just *a person who takes mathematical
objects to be real*. 

This has little to do with a common meaning of this word 
e.g. as a person seeing the reality as it stands. 

Vladimir Kanovei