> But I think in this context he may have been better to say “arithmetic” or maybe root logical operations, because he was trying to convey small axiomatic units of universal truth rather than pull an entire field “into purity”
What makes you think that arithmetic and logic are universal? A culture with a completely different way of thinking may not arrive to a system similar to our mathematics based on logical reasoning and search of consistency. Heck, we can see it in a lot of human beings who are not capable of consistent logical reasoning, and they're not even alien.
> Heck, we can see it in a lot of human beings who are not capable of consistent logical reasoning, and they're not even alien.
All humans share this flaw (if it is a flaw). Not just some. We all do. It’s part of what makes us human—we have emotions that for better or worse transcend logic and reasoning.
In fact I could maybe argue that emotion is an important part of logic and reasoning. Emotion leads to skepticism and thinking outside the box. Both traits are needed to advance our understanding of the world.
Yes, but these things exist because our brains reason this way, not because they are constants of nature. Other intelligent beings could have different non-symbolic ways of gathering and processing information about nature, such as evolving cellular automata adequate to represent and solve problems.
What makes you think that arithmetic and logic are universal? A culture with a completely different way of thinking may not arrive to a system similar to our mathematics based on logical reasoning and search of consistency. Heck, we can see it in a lot of human beings who are not capable of consistent logical reasoning, and they're not even alien.