Posted: May 24, 2019 8:38 am
I've always felt this question is close to nonsensical. Why does mathematics work? Because it can't not. In a world where there are quantitative relationships of any kind that don't constantly change infinitely fast, mathematics will obtain and can be used. It can't be any other way.
What would it take for mathematics not to work? Try to imagine a world in which there are no quantitative relationships of any kind. No distances, no numbers of entities, entities without any imaginable mathematically analyzeable properties (such that they can't, for example, be enumerated).
It should become obvious that such a world cannot even be imagined. Any world with any contents whatsoever of which there is even one, or more entities in existence, will have aspects of it that can be described by mathematics.
The questions of mathematics's success is frankly uninteresting. There's nothing here to be explained.
What would it take for mathematics not to work? Try to imagine a world in which there are no quantitative relationships of any kind. No distances, no numbers of entities, entities without any imaginable mathematically analyzeable properties (such that they can't, for example, be enumerated).
It should become obvious that such a world cannot even be imagined. Any world with any contents whatsoever of which there is even one, or more entities in existence, will have aspects of it that can be described by mathematics.
The questions of mathematics's success is frankly uninteresting. There's nothing here to be explained.