Actual conversations you've had

Chimps can count. That's a type of mathematics.

>>9068457
Chimps can do basic math.
You're both retards.

>>9068460
>>9068465
I think is specifically said advanced mathematics

>>9068474
I*

>>9068474
Read the OP.
Nothing about "advanced".

>>9068481
I am op , I meant in the actual conversation, not here

>>9068505
Well, we can't read your mind, OP.

>>9068507
Are you sure?

>ask him that if its not an innate ability, why can't a chimp learn mathematics?
>If an ability is learned by humans, a chimp must also be able to learn it
What sort of asinine reasoning is this, OP? Please provide proof of your age; I doubt you're 18 yet.

>>9068548
Pretty sure, OP.

>>9068552
If a person didn't have an innate ability to understand math then how would they learn it?

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Mathematics is certainly not innate. Thats why its so hard for us and takes years of schooling.

Compare math to language. Children literally just absorb language. You don't have to go through any special effort to teach them, they will just learn.

Nothing like that happens with mathematics.

Your argument is missing the point. Chimps can't learn mathematics because they don't have language, and the only way we can teach mathematics is through language. OP you are a brainlet.

>the universe looks fine-tuned for life
>no, life is fine-tuned for the universe.
Many times.

I dont expect a completely isolated human to know anything more than addition with results less than 100.

>>9068674
Anyone takes ages to learn a new language and after the first you'll always have accents and shit. If you take some kid who grew up in the wilderness they won't learn to communicate in many years.
Humans need to learn everything we do these days and depending on when they did it might or might not feel natural, but nothing actually is.

>>9068457
Well, our innate ability to do math doesn't have much to do with the math that we actually do.

We DO have an innate ability to intuitively understand relationships between simple quantities. That is innate. Understanding just why 1 + 1 = 2, and what 1 and 2 means is innate.

But modern math isn't really that, is it? It's an abstract set of rules agreed upon, and the exploration of what precisely those rules produce.

In some ways, they're apples and oranges.

>>9068460
So can some spiders, they can compare values too. Though spiders and some others are particular exceptions, most complex animals (AKA those with advanced nervous systems) have some notion of counting and value.

>>9068631
That's not what "innate" means you fucking retard. Though I would agree our ability of language allows for things like learning mathematics. If our brains are able of the manipulation of abstract objects like in language, this likely enables much of our mental capacity. It seems language and a social species is key to intelligence.

>>9068693
We have an innate ability of language. Not in that we are capable of it but that the basic structure is biologically embedded in us.

>If you take some kid who grew up in the wilderness they won't learn to communicate in many years.
This would likely render them brain-dead, they need to be social to develop their brains properly. It is likely that the kid would have permanent stunted brain development, which would be the challenge in acquiring it, possibly it would hard for them to grasp it beyond basic object-orientated communication, at all, if you were to introduce them to society past 25 y/o. If you had a community of these kids however, they will almost certainly naturally spawn a complex and subtle language for communicated amongst themselves. However, this language is likely to be devoid of more abstract concepts that take generations to develop. They probably wouldn't have concepts of time in it beyond near-future. Maybe no time distinction at all.