|{Math, Philosophy, Programming, Writing}| = 1

TL;DR

This paper explores the shared core of Mathematics, Philosophy, Programming, and Writing as tools for understanding the world through language, highlighting their common goal of off-loading cognitive effort.

Contribution

It proposes a unified perspective on these disciplines as different expressions of a common cognitive strategy for understanding reality.

Findings

Identifies a common essence among diverse disciplines.

Highlights language as a tool for cognitive off-loading.

Suggests a unified framework for understanding these fields.

Abstract

Philosophical thinking has a side effect: by aiming to find the essence of a diverse set of phenomena, it often makes it difficult to see the differences between them. This can be the case with Mathematics, Programming, Writing and Philosophy itself. Their unified essence is having a shared understanding of the world helped by off-loading our cognitive efforts to suitable languages.