topynate comments on Exponentiation goes wrong first - Less Wrong

10 [deleted] 14 December 2010 04:13AM

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Comment author: topynate 14 December 2010 04:13:35PM 0 points [-]

But we do not have to have a model, or even to know any model theory, to "talk about something."

Aren't you mixing up "having a model" in the sense of knowing and thinking about one, and having one in the sense of one existing? An untutored person may have no real opinion on the relationship between his words and reality, but one nevertheless exists.

Comment author: [deleted] 14 December 2010 04:51:08PM 2 points [-]

Aren't you mixing up "having a model" in the sense of knowing and thinking about one, and having one in the sense of one existing?

You would have to tell me what you mean by "existing." There is a real (though often informal) distinction between constructive and non-constructive proofs, and this distinction exists in model theory also.