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Although 17 years have passed, I remember my first day at university very well. The first lesson I attended was Set Theory, taught by Ali Nesin, one of the greatest mathematicians of our time. The lesson lasted about two hours, and Professor Ali Nesin talked about the existence of numbers. It was a pretty interesting lecture. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was really learning something. I took tons of notes throughout the course.
Today, I will share my notes from my first math class 17 years ago. I hope you enjoy it as well.
When we say “understand numbers,” you may get the idea that numbers physically exist, and we want to understand those objects. For this reason, we should focus on what “understanding numbers” means. What can we understand about numbers? How much can we really understand numbers? How do we know that we really understand something like numbers? What type of understanding do we have for numbers? We will focus on these questions from a profoundly philosophical perspective.
It might sound awkward, but is there any difference between understanding numbers and understanding horses? The answer is yes. Horses exist physically, and they are tangible. They graze, run, and race, and we can see them. We can understand horses’ digestive system because horses have a system in their…
