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Re: SIGHTINGS
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Anthony Stadlen [on SKB's "With a little ingenuity not God but we humans can do it (derive 1 from 0)" and "Recalling VN’s statement quoted recently ...that ONE is the only real number, and everything else comes from addition..".] observes: "Another VN (Von Neumann) derived all the natural numbers (1,2,3,...) from zero by set theory thus: 1 = {0), 2 = [0, 1}, 3 = {0, 1, 2}, etc."
JM: Didn't VN's quote include a verb in his sentence (speak, say, write, read, perceive, think) about ONE? It makes all the difference. Whenever one speaks, or reads,writes, etc ...there is no absolute "zero", only a human artifact, or a concept, about "zero." It would be fascinating to find a collection of VN's observations (and their context) in relation to numbers and metalanguage.
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JM: Didn't VN's quote include a verb in his sentence (speak, say, write, read, perceive, think) about ONE? It makes all the difference. Whenever one speaks, or reads,writes, etc ...there is no absolute "zero", only a human artifact, or a concept, about "zero." It would be fascinating to find a collection of VN's observations (and their context) in relation to numbers and metalanguage.
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm
Visit "Nabokov Online Journal:" http://www.nabokovonline.com
Manage subscription options: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/