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XiXiDu comments on [LINK] What is it like to have an understanding of very advanced mathematics? - Less Wrong Discussion

25 [deleted] 31 December 2011 05:07AM

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Comment author: XiXiDu 31 December 2011 02:59:41PM *  3 points [-]

Does intuition play an important role in the field of mathematics? The essay seems to suggest that mathematicians use their intuition a great deal. Terence Tao seems to agree that it is important:

...“fuzzier” or “intuitive” thinking (such as heuristic reasoning, judicious extrapolation from examples, or analogies with other contexts such as physics) gets deprecated as “non-rigorous”. All too often, one ends up discarding one’s initial intuition and is only able to process mathematics at a formal level, thus getting stalled at the second stage of one’s mathematical education.

The point of rigour is not to destroy all intuition; instead, it should be used to destroy bad intuition while clarifying and elevating good intuition. It is only with a combination of both rigorous formalism and good intuition that one can tackle complex mathematical problems;

Comment author: [deleted] 31 December 2011 05:45:29PM 4 points [-]

What is intuition?

Comment author: [deleted] 31 December 2011 05:36:01PM 0 points [-]

Damn you, XiXiDu! I'd already squirreled away the first sentence of the second paragraph for January's rationality quotes thread. Ah well.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 31 December 2011 06:40:23PM 3 points [-]

It still might be a good idea to post it there. Afaik, duplication in quotes threads is discouraged, but not between the quotes threads and the rest of the site.

Comment author: Stuart_Armstrong 01 January 2012 01:07:26AM 0 points [-]

Intuition is vital. Theorems can take paragraphs and proofs can go for pages; without intuition, the combinatorics would annihilate you. Interestingly, I'm starting to develop new intuitions (in logic, rather than my old field, differential geometry) which means I might soonbe able to do some work in the field.