"It should be emphasized that block models are physical models, the elements of which can be physically manipulated. Their manipulation differs in obvious and fundamental ways from the manipulation of symbols in formal axiomatic systems and in mathematics. For example the transformations described above, in which two linear arrays are joined together to form one array, or a rectangle of blocks is re-assembled into a linear array, are physical transformations not symbolic transformations. …"
— Storrs McCall, Department of Philosophy, McGill University, "The Consistency of Arithmetic"
"It should be emphasized…."
OK:
Storrs McCall at a 2008 philosophy conference .
His blocks talk was at 2:50 PM July 21, 2008.
See also this journal at noon that same day:
Froebel's Third Gift and the Eightfold Cube
