But they aren’t causally inert, they’re part of causality! Our universe runs on mathematical laws, and mathematics is mostly just a description (or extrapolation) of them. If there were weird carve-out exceptions for 2+2=5 in our physics, they would very much be incorporated into our mathematics. If we lived in a universe where physics operated by different mathematical laws, then our conception of mathematics would be correspondingly different.
You seem to be claiming that it is possible for mathematical truths such as 2+2=5 to be other than what they are; I can agree with this on an epistemological level (since we don’t know all mathematical truths) but on on ontological level, no: mathematical truths are necessary truths. This is the conventional view though I’m not really sure how to argue it to a skeptic: but if you don’t see why 2+2=4 is a necessary truth then I claim you don’t truly comprehend why 2+2=4.
But they aren’t causally inert, they’re part of causality! Our universe runs on mathematical laws, and mathematics is mostly just a description (or extrapolation) of them. If there were weird carve-out exceptions for 2+2=5 in our physics, they would very much be incorporated into our mathematics. If we lived in a universe where physics operated by different mathematical laws, then our conception of mathematics would be correspondingly different.
I think this refutes Platonism, but I’m not sure.
You seem to be claiming that it is possible for mathematical truths such as 2+2=5 to be other than what they are; I can agree with this on an epistemological level (since we don’t know all mathematical truths) but on on ontological level, no: mathematical truths are necessary truths. This is the conventional view though I’m not really sure how to argue it to a skeptic: but if you don’t see why 2+2=4 is a necessary truth then I claim you don’t truly comprehend why 2+2=4.