FOM: Intuition and Rigor

[JoeShipman@aol.com]

Tennant:

Here is a modest list of the successes of intuition over rigor.

1. Everything is composed of earth, air, fire and water.
2. The sun goes round the earth.
3. The earth is flat.
4. God exists.
5. There is an afterlife.
6. For every property F, there is a set of all Fs.
7. Peano arithmetic is complete.
8. Space is Euclidean.
9. There is only one kind of infinity.
10. Mind is distinct from matter.


Neil, I don't know if you intended to imply that all these statements have the same epistemological status.  I don't think they do: propositions 1,2,3,6,7,8, and 9 have been disproved, while propositions 4,5, and 10 are open questions.  Do you mean to suggest that 4,5, and 10 have also been disproved?

-- Joe Shipman