Written by Guib on 02.11.2012 at 06:14
But isn't an ''Established Term Used By Everyone'' still an opinion? isnt everything an opinion when its not concerning Physics or Maths lol
The fact that it is established is not an opinion. It is established because people who have that opinion have argued for it and use it. Not that their opinion should matter, here; it's how well it's argued, how fruitful the term is, and how much clarity or confusion it adds to language.
But yeah, you could very well change its definition. You could argue for a modified meaning, no problem. I'm not saying there's a definite meaning and that's that, at all. In fact, I imagine there are competing, slightly different definitions for the word in use. I'm saying none of us here are qualified to take part in that discussion. If we'd studied the relevant fields and were engaged in academic or public discussion about them, then we could propose better definitions. This is not the context for it, and the "arguments" presented here aren't sufficient. Not just any opinion is an argument to be taken seriously.
I would maintain that math and physics are fundamentally no different and it's just a question of degree, but that goes too far into modern philosophy of science for this topic.