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USE OF NUMBERS
It is speculated that the first known use of numbers dates back to around 30000 BC, bones or other artifacts have been discovered
with marks cut into them which are often considered tally marks. The use of these tally marks have been suggested to be anything
from counting elapsed time, such as numbers of days, or keeping records of amounts. Perhaps our phrase "are you keeping tally"
had its origins in antiquity!
It is sufficient to note that since the beginning of recorded numbers and history of mankind , humans have endeavored to understand
the very nature of the universe and knowable things in terms of "numbers", mathematics and physics, of the latter, numbers being the root.
ONTOLOGY
In philosophy, ontology is the study of being or existence and forms the basic subject matter of metaphysics. It seeks to describe or
posit the basic categories and relationships of being or existence to define entities and types of entities within its framework. Ontology
can be represented as a search for an answer to the question "What is the nature of the knowable things?".
METAPHYSICS
The first major work in the history of philosophy to bear the title "Metaphysics" was the treatise by Aristotle that we have come to know
by that name. Meta" in Greek means over, and --- since when you jump over something you find yourself behind or after it --- it is also
understood as behind and after.
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the ultimate nature of reality, being, and the world. The purpose of
metaphysics, which is to reach beyond nature (physis) as we perceive it, and to discover the "true nature" of things, their ultimate essence
and the reason for being.
Philosophies traditionally start with a metaphysics principles that organize the universe. Metaphysics is supposed to answer the question
"What is the nature of reality?"
OCKAM'S RAZOR
Ockam's razor is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. The principle states that
the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the
observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.
Distilled, the "theory of succinctness" is often paraphrased as "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one," or alternately,
"the simplest explanation tends to be the right one." In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle
recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest hypothetical entities. It is in this sense that
Ockam's razor is usually understood.
PRINCIPAL OF THE GREEK "ARETHMOI"
The Pythagoreans postulated the Greek theory of arethmoi, by endeavoring to understand the "order of the heavens", concluding that
"the being of all things is number". So counting, or the act of being counted, became associated with being itself and behavior -
a metaphysical concept.
BIBLICAL BOOK OF NUMBERS
The Book of Numbers is the fourth of the books of the Pentateuch, which translates to in the desert. In the Septuagint , Greek version it is
called Arithmoi, or Latin Numeri - the usual title of the book is Numbers. The Book of Numbers contains a record of the numbering of the
people in the wilderness of Sinai (1-4), and of their numbering afterwards on the plain of Moab (26).
ANCIENT NUMBER DEVELOPERS
Sumerians and Babylonians were the first people to develop the written number system - at least that is what we now think as there
aren't any older surviving documents which contain what we might consider to be numbers. They used the stylus made of reed to
write cuneiform symbols onto a wet clay tablet, which later they baked if they wished to preserve what was written on it.
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