You can always “use” analysis the issue is whether it gives you correct answers. It only gives you the correct answer if the universe obeys certain axioms.
Well, this gets us back to the topic that spawned this whole discussion: I’m not sure we can separate the question ‘can we use it’ from ‘does it give us true results’ with something like math. If I’m right that people always have mostly true beliefs, then when we’re talking about the more basic ways of thinking (not Aristotelian dynamics, but counting, arithmetic, etc.) the fact that we can use them is very good evidence that they mostly return true results. So if you’re right that you can always use, say, arithmetic, then I think we should conclude that a universe is always subject to analysis by arithmetic.
You may be totally wrong that you can always use these things, of course. But I think you’re probably right and I can’t make sense of any suggestion to the contrary that I’ve heard yet.
You can always “use” analysis the issue is whether it gives you correct answers. It only gives you the correct answer if the universe obeys certain axioms.
Well, this gets us back to the topic that spawned this whole discussion: I’m not sure we can separate the question ‘can we use it’ from ‘does it give us true results’ with something like math. If I’m right that people always have mostly true beliefs, then when we’re talking about the more basic ways of thinking (not Aristotelian dynamics, but counting, arithmetic, etc.) the fact that we can use them is very good evidence that they mostly return true results. So if you’re right that you can always use, say, arithmetic, then I think we should conclude that a universe is always subject to analysis by arithmetic.
You may be totally wrong that you can always use these things, of course. But I think you’re probably right and I can’t make sense of any suggestion to the contrary that I’ve heard yet.
One could mathematically describe things not analysable by arithmetic, though...
Fair point, arithmetic’s not a good example of a minimum for mathematical description.