On Thu, 26 Jul 2007, WENDEE HOLTCAMP wrote:
> Gordon, I'm not sure what you mean by saying "I don't follow your reasoning
> when you see mathematics as having more in common with history and
> philosophy than with science" what did I say/write specifically to make you
> think this?
Wendee,
You wrote, "All, or many, other fields (history, math, philosophy,
cultural studies, etc.) use #1 and #2, and so does science--but science is
distinguished by......"
The word conjecture in mathematics would seem to correspond to what you
call a hypothesis. For example, Fermat's Last Theorem was known in
mathematical circles as the Fermat Conjecture until a proof was found,
before which time one had to consider the possibility that a
counterexample might be found.
Gordon Brown (ASA member)
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Received on Thu Jul 26 17:35:33 2007
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