From owner-qed Sun Nov 6 10:09:01 1994 Received: from localhost (listserv@localhost) by antares.mcs.anl.gov (8.6.4/8.6.4) id KAA07390 for qed-out; Sun, 6 Nov 1994 10:07:20 -0600 Received: from emu.pmms.cam.ac.uk (root@emu.pmms.cam.ac.uk [131.111.24.1]) by antares.mcs.anl.gov (8.6.4/8.6.4) with SMTP id KAA07385 for ; Sun, 6 Nov 1994 10:07:14 -0600 Received: by emu.pmms.cam.ac.uk (UK-Smail 3.1.25.1/1); Sun, 6 Nov 94 16:07 GMT Message-Id: Date: Sun, 6 Nov 94 16:07 GMT From: Thomas Forster To: Zdzislaw.Meglicki@cisr.anu.edu.au, debruijn@win.tue.nl Subject: Re: Intuition about Freiling's axiom Cc: qed@mcs.anl.gov Sender: owner-qed@mcs.anl.gov Precedence: bulk Meglicki's point is not very new, but it is very important. he says ``Nature herself engraved on our minds the basic mathematical notions pertaining to the Universe we live in over billions of years of natural evolution. Animals without any mathematical training, education or culture are perfectly capable of recognising basic geometrical notions and relations in their neighbourhood. They are also perfectly capable of using "greater then" relation in assessing potential danger or sources of food \ldots" I have often recommended my students to read R. McNeil Alexander: Optima for Animals which provides some nice detail to back up this point. Thomas Forster