[FOM] Fictionalism About Mathematics

[Avril Styrman]

Lainaus T.Forster at dpmms.cam.ac.uk:

> But if mathematical entities are to be fictions, what real things  
> are they fictions of? And if they aren't, why call them fictions?

It would be simpler to say that we have abstract  
ideas/thoughts/theories; some of these have correspondence with the  
concrete/physical reality/nature, and some do not.

Fictionalism is an unnecessarily complicated semantical formulation:  
it does not help understanding stuff, but it can create confusion, as  
this thread shows.

A. Styrman