[FOM] Fictionalism About Mathematics

[Vaughan Pratt]

On 3/10/2012 4:13 PM, Kevin Scharp wrote:
> mathematical entities are surely one of the most familiar purportedly abstract objects
> and one would think that Platonism is incompatible with fictionalism

Where is Platonism if not in the mind?  Is Harry Potter any more 
fictional than an eigenvector?

Mathematics is an intensely psychological experience for its 
practitioners, who can follow any precisely specified plot however 
intricate as long as those of its entities postulated to exist remain 
coherent.

Vaughan Pratt