Why is the concept of "odd and even" a philosophical illusion?

[Nlighten1]

I keep hearing this commercial on AAR. Anyone know?

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

1. Why don't you tell me?

:)

[pinto]

2. is zero even or odd?

[trotsky]

9. Zero is even.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Even_and_odd_numbers

Zero, of course, is divisible by every number, but because it's divisible by 2, it's even.

[Salviati]

3. I have no idea what they're talking about...

and I majored in math and physics. I suppose it is in the sense that everything is a philosophical illusion, but that's not very helpful.

They are correct as to why the sky is blue though.

[muchacho]

5. except..

that violet has the shortest wavelength.

[Salviati]

15. True, but...

the sun does not emit light equally at all wavelengths, so there's not much violet light to be scattered, so we're left with blue...

[Nlighten1]

14. Cresent fresh!

I love Sifl and Olly. I wish MTV would have kept them on.

[muchacho]

4. What the epistemological problem involves

http://radicalacademy.com/philaquinasmdw6.htm

[NormanConquest]

6. Thanks for the link. nt

[TheBlob]

7. Don't know, but

"Never Odd Or Even" is a palindrome.

[0007]

I concur

A segment of double-stranded DNA in which the nucleotide sequence of one strand reads in reverse order to that of the complementary strand.

[JVS]

8. Sounds like bullshit from people who don't know math

The odd natural numbers form a group under multiplication.

The even natural numbers fail to form a group under multiplications as they fail to have an identity element (there is no even natural number x, such that x*y=y, where y is an even natural number).

Stupid marketing fucks.

[mulethree]

10. too hard

Theres a right answer that would be real long.

Just measure your number more accurately and odd/even become meaningless. 4 is even, 3.999999999 and 4.000000001 are both odd?
So Integers are philosophical illusions

[JVS]

11. if you have 4 apples, it doesn't matter how accurately you measure

there are still going to be 4.

[K8-EEE]

12. UGH!! The Over-Acting Kid Has Been To TOO MANY AUDITIONS

I fucking HATE that affected "look what a cute kid I am" voice, ewweww....that poor kid must have some stage mom!

[SheepyMcSheepster]

13. maybe try reading this

http://radicalacademy.com/philaquinasmdw6.htm


A. What the epistemological problem involves

It has been indicated that the epistemological problem centers upon an inquiry concerning the validity of our spontaneous assertions. This inquiry resolves itself into two problems. First, the motive which leads the mind to establish a relation between a subject and a predicate in a judgment, and secondly, the validity of the respective terms themselves. Thus, when I say that a number is odd or even, or, that water boils at 100 degrees C., I may inquire:

* (a) What leads me to form a mental synthesis of number and odd or even; of water and boiling at 100 degrees C.?
* (b) What is the validity of these terms: number; odd; even; water; boiling? Are they mere mental products or do they refer to objects independently existent in an external world?

Aquinas does not formulate these two problems with modern precision, for he wrote at a time when idealism and scepticism were mere academic theses which no one took seriously; but his doctrine contains a solution of the two problems which we have indicated.

We will begin with the second, and his answer may be summed up as follows: "Our sense perceptions correspond to an external world, but their content is not adequate or complete. Again our abstract and general ideas (water, life, number, equality, etc.) correspond to a reality which is not solely a product of the mind, since it has been inferred from sense data."


it continues, this is no the whole peice.