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fubarobfusco comments on (Subjective Bayesianism vs. Frequentism) VS. Formalism - Less Wrong
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And yet, if I set one apple next to one apple, there are two apples. Arithmetic predicts facts about the world with such reliability that it is perfectly reasonable to say that sentences about numbers have real-world truth values, regardless of whether numbers "exist". We come up with arithmetic because it enables us to make sense of the world, because the world actually does behave that way.
And if I pour one bucket of water into another, do I now have two buckets?
(Yes, there's something being conserved in this example, but is it 'number of buckets'/'number of apples'?)
Yes? One empty bucket, one full bucket and a bunch of water that overflowed and went on the floor.
But it takes a machine besides the universe to count apples. Namely, humans. Arithmetic is turing complete, as is probability theory, so we should not be confused when we notice that it can practically talk about everything under the sun, including things out there in being.