spendius wrote:"There is not,and cannot be,number as such."
Oswald Spengler.The Decline of the West.Chap 2.Part 3.
He continues-"There are several number-worlds as there are several Cultures."
He goes on to say that each culture's number is "a symbol having a specific validity which is even capable of scientific definition,a principle of ordering the Become which reflects the central essence of one and only one soul,viz., the soul of that particular Culture.Consequently,there are more mathematics than one."
Not that I understand fully Spengler but I have had a go.
The Chapter "Meaning Of Numbers" follows the introduction to this influential book.
What makes you of it JJ?
He isn't just referring to the shapes of the numerals that number borrows. And if he is talking about mathematical number, then number is number by virtue of being in an application. Numbers are not transferable between applications. So if Spengler wants to say that mathematical numbers refer to cultures I would wonder what single application he had in mind.
Apart from that, the only example I can give to make a link between numbers in mathematical applications and mystical significances is this: That 1 thing is not countable or differentiated from many unless there is another. And that 2 things the same cannot be differentiated from one thing. And that this bears upon the way we understand God, for example, or causality.
There are also people who visualise numbers or perceive them as feelings, and yet can still perform calculations based on these curious perceptions. There is also a sacred geometry which ordinary folks can sometimes find quite powerful.
But what is Spengler doing? Spengler must present his ideas clearly. We must see what he is doing. Spengler must say in what system he presents his cultural numbers otherwise he is just expressing personal preferences, like the man who says 'I imagine the letter A to be red in colour.'
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