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Thanks for the posts, Dennis and Christie. Here is one comment. Others may follow. Regarding concreteness (whitehead’s word), I think it’s as opposed to abstract. In philosophy that might mean comparing a beautiful thing (concrete) to beauty (abstract). Are abstract things real? I think different philosophers have different opinions on that. So let me give a science example.

About 350 years ago Newton defined a force he called gravity (ie, massive bodies attract each other). It was amazingly successful in modeling a variety of things (like why apples fall, why the tide rolls in and out, and why the earth orbits the sun). A poet said of this: Nature and nature’s laws were hid in night/God said let Newton be and all was light. For 250 years gravity was considered to be real. Then about 100 years ago Einstein said gravity was not real because he had a better model, that is, one that explained more things (ie, mass tells space how to curve and space tells mass how to move). So is the Einstein model real? No, because all models (even the ones we currently believe) are wrong. In fact, physicists are seeking a better model even as we write.

I would suggest that actual entities are similar useful models, like gravity was (and still is in some cases). I doubt that humanity will ever be able to grasp “reality” and we’ll also have to be contented with useful models, even though they’re always wrong.

Agreed—DC area meetup would be a good thing

Bob, I know you were a long-time professor at Graceland. Do you happen to recall a custodian there named Baldwin? His son Bill was one of my best PhD students at Iowa State. -George

Dennis, Glad to see a fellow mathematician in the class. Also, I spent a month in Boone years ago at a summer math seminar. It was organized by a young Appalachian State math professor who had had the same thesis advisor that I had. Like me, he changed to computer science. (Sadly, I’ve forgotten his name.) -George

Jin, Your life story so far is very interesting. I look forward to getting to know you and sharing our views. -George

Nelson, Who would have thought there’d be two of us in northern virginia?! I’m in Vienna. Where are you? -George