Aristotelico-Thomist answer: what is 'the same'?

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aquohn

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Just something I was wondering about. I’m familiar with the A-T doctrine on objects, but not so on mathematical objects. So this question goes out to all Aristotelico-Thomists: the set of the number of past girlfriends I’ve had and the empty set are coterminous, i.e mathematically equivalent (i.e. I have never had a girlfriend). But are these two mathematical objects the same, in the way that I am the same as myself? Are these two just different names for the same object? Or are they two distinct objects?
 
aquohn said:
Just something I was wondering about. I’m familiar with the A-T doctrine on objects, but not so on mathematical objects. So this question goes out to all Aristotelico-Thomists: the set of the number of past girlfriends I’ve had and the empty set are coterminous, i.e mathematically equivalent (i.e. I have never had a girlfriend). But are these two mathematical objects the same, in the way that I am the same as myself? Are these two just different names for the same object? Or are they two distinct objects?
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It could be the Bob Seger tune “Still the Same”.
 
aquohn said:
Just something I was wondering about. I’m familiar with the A-T doctrine on objects, but not so on mathematical objects. So this question goes out to all Aristotelico-Thomists: the set of the number of past girlfriends I’ve had and the empty set are coterminous, i.e mathematically equivalent (i.e. I have never had a girlfriend). But are these two mathematical objects the same, in the way that I am the same as myself? Are these two just different names for the same object? Or are they two distinct objects?
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The set {3, 5, 7} can be defined as either primes in the range 3 to 10 or odd numbers in the range 2 to 8. Either way, the set is the same, mathematically. While the sets are identical, they do describe different things.
 
Alberti_Devoveo said:
The set {3, 5, 7} can be defined as either primes in the range 3 to 10 or odd numbers in the range 2 to 8. Either way, the set is the same, mathematically. While the sets are identical, they do describe different things.
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Yeah, that’s my question: they are the same mathematically, but are they the same in the sense that I am the same as myself?
 
aquohn said:
Yeah, that’s my question: they are the same mathematically, but are they the same in the sense that I am the same as myself?
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No, I do not believe so; the sets describe different things.
 
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