Hacker News Reader

Platonism is a major school of thought in the philosophy of mathematics.

Not only that, but most philosophers who specialize in the philosophy of mathematics are Platonists: https://philpapers.org/surveys/results.pl?affil=Target+facul.... IME, this is also true of working mathematicians, but much less true of physicists.

What does being Platonist mean in this case; I wonder. The definition I've been given once is just that mathematical objects exist, but philosophers take it to mean that one believes in Plato's Theory of Ideas. The Theory of Ideas is a major development by Plato, but it has fatal flaws as set out in Plato's Parmenides. If so, I wonder how these Platonists have chosen to resolve it.

> philosophers take it to mean that one believes in Plato's Theory of Ideas.

This is not accurate. Platonism, in a contemporary context, is the view that abstract objects exist. And so in particular to be platonist about mathematics is to believe in the existence of mathematical entities.

Thanks for correcting me.

What’s the difference between theory of ideas and the belief that abstract ideas exist?

The Theory of Ideas (aka Theory of Forms) is a specific conception of the true nature of the universe. Wikipedia seems to have a quite adequate introduction to it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_forms

Reply on news.ycombinator.com