[FOM] Fact and opinion in F.O.M.

[martdowd at aol.com]

FOM
This dilemma occurs in other sciences.  Is it a fact that electrons exist?  Their existence is inferred from a large body of theory and experiment, but they are still "mythical creatures".
Martin Dowd
 
 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy Y. Chow <tchow at math.princeton.edu>
To: fom <fom at cs.nyu.edu>
Sent: Tue, Dec 24, 2019 9:53 am
Subject: Re: [FOM] Fact and opinion in F.O.M.

Joe Shipman wrote:

> Recently I concluded that the biggest problem in internet discussion of 
> public policy was that most people seemed not to competently distinguish 
> between fact and opinion, and that one easy distinguishing feature is 
> that people of good will cannot be in permanent disagreement about a 
> matter of fact, so that people who mistook their opinion for a fact 
> might unfairly regard their opponents as perverse or dishonest.
>
> I now see that this distinction sheds light on some puzzles regarding 
> choice of axioms.
>
> To a first approximation, statements of arithmetic are matters of fact, 
> while provably independent statements like CH are matters of opinion.

I don't fully understand what you're saying.  You seem to be conflating 
metaphysics and epistemology.

Is a provably independent statement of arithmetic a "fact" or an 
"opinion"?

If a "fact" is something that people of good will cannot be in permanent 
disagreement about, then it would seem that the analogue in mathematics 
would be a theorem, rather than a statement of arithmetic.

Tim
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