Greg's response to a letter which asserted there is no qualitative difference between animals and humans.
Let me sum up my thinking on this. My point was not that all of math historically is discovered before any science is done. People are aware of early math --2 + 2 = 4--and they use it in the exploration of the universe. As they learn, and maybe even discover things about the universe that are not explained by math, people probe the area of math more to learn more about it. The exploration of the physical universe stimulates a pursuit of a non-physical thing, the non-physical arena of math. Math isn't physical, numbers aren't physical, plus and equal and minus aren't physical, and equations aren't physical. We write them on the board and there is a physical representation of them, but those are only tokens. Math isn't the scratch of chalk on the board. Math is the concept of the numerals in plus and minus and equal relations. So, we can explore this world much like we explore the material realm. But they are two separate disciplines. Our limitations in exploring the material realm might stimulate our exploration in the non-material realm of math so that we can be more effective at exploring the material realm. But, if math came from science, science would not be limited by the lack of development in math. You observe that there was an attempt to make some sense of the movement of the bodies in the heavens that couldn't be done because the math wasn't up to speed. If math came from science in an organic relationship, then the science couldn't be less than the math. The science would always be more than the math, if it was its parent. As it turns out, science was brought somewhat to a standstill, at least in some areas, until the math could be done that could serve the interests of science.