Journal Entry 2

1/9/15
While reflecting on a previous TOK lessons, one of
the comments I heard while discussing math was
what makes math so trustworthy which got me
thinking; how come day after day you hear people
questioning nearly everything, and news channels
constantly questioning here and there but never do
you hear anyone questioning anything regarding
math. Furthermore, recently in Syria there was a
huge religious outbreak where one famous TV
presenter started a show with new religious ideas
linking to Islam and the debate was Live on TV
between him and very respected Sheikhs arguing
these new ideas, so even religion constantly gets
questioned but never math
How have we established math as such a reliable
form of knowledge?
Math is sometimes referred to as the language of the
universe. there would be no such thing as
experimental psychology without math; specifically
that of statistical analysis. Comparing any group with
any other group requires math. Looking for
relationships between variables, finding correlations
etc requires math.
The key to this argument is axioms. An Axiom
is a rule or a statement that is accepted as true
without proof. An axiom is also called a postulate.
The clearest example of an Axiom would be
something like if you add 1 to any number you get
the next number in the numerical timeline so x
added to 1 is x+1 and so on. These axioms are used
for centuries with no arguments, some have never
been changed, some may have varied with the
adaptation of the human mind however this is just
normal, none have ever been denied. This is what
truly drives math as such a reliable method of
knowledge; arguing with it is simply impossible and

leaves one looking like a fool. When compared to

sciences, religion or general theories that may pop
up in economics or business, these will always have
questionable factors; whether with strong or weak
proof something is always adding doubt.
Furthermore, exceptions are very very rare in
math. Actually the only one that ever pops up is that
imaginary number labeled as i and it is never truly
understood. Although it is very clich the simplest
explanation of this concept is that An imaginary
number is a number that can be written as a real
number multiplied by the imaginary unit i- never
understood but that stresses on the toughness of
questioning math; you have to come up with the
most complex idea ever.
Just another explanation is:
However, a recent question driven by a recent
Stanford study was, do our axioms have to change
with recent developments? The link
-http://math.stanford.edu/~feferman/papers/ASL2000
R.pdf- explains this strongly and does indeed add a
rare element of doubt in our common long lasting
reliability when it comes to math, A very modern idea
but obtains strong potential that could change math
forever.