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Let’s leave philosophers to puzzle over the reality of numbers

7 March 2020

9:00 AM

7 March 2020

9:00 AM

The Mathematics of the Gods and the Algorithms of Men: A Cultural History Paolo Zellini, translated from the Italian by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre

Allen Lane, pp.240, 18.99

The reality (or lack thereof) of numbers is the kind of problem some philosophers consider overwhelmingly important, but it’s of no consequence to just about everyone else. It does not make a wink of difference to your life whether the figures in your bank account or the digits on your clock are, in a philosophical sense, really real, so long as they work as expected.

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