Leopold Kronecker stated that: ‘God made the integers, all else is the work of man’, discuss this statement and use it as a starting point to answer the question; is Mathematics invented or discovered?
Mathematics is certainly the most intriguing and unusual science, not just because it uses abstract concepts to describe the physical world but also because it is the root of all the sciences; without it physics would most certainly be redundant. It is especially unusual as it concerns a subject that is constructed upon rigorous proof and hard facts but is then steeped in philosophy because the things (integers and axioms) that it is built on, exist through assumption. No one can completely be certain when they claim that Mathematics was invented or discovered, each side of the argument has its numerous reasons and because of this, it is a very remarkable topic as there is no right answer.
Most Mathematicians, have and will usually take the side of the two primary views regarding the nature of mathematics. These are called platonism and nominalism. Mathematical platonism is the theory that suggests mathematics is something that humans discovered as it proposes that mathematical objects exist abstractly as well as independent of human existence. This essentially means that all the mathematics that we know of has always existed and will continue to regardless of whether we discovered it or not. An example of this is the laws of Physics; these have always existed and would
Mathematics is certainly the most intriguing and unusual science, not just because it uses abstract concepts to describe the physical world but also because it is the root of all the sciences; without it physics would most certainly be redundant. It is especially unusual as it concerns a subject that is constructed upon rigorous proof and hard facts but is then steeped in philosophy because the things (integers and axioms) that it is built on, exist through assumption. No one can completely be certain when they claim that Mathematics was invented or discovered, each side of the argument has its numerous reasons and because of this, it is a very remarkable topic as there is no right answer.
Most Mathematicians, have and will usually take the side of the two primary views regarding the nature of mathematics. These are called platonism and nominalism. Mathematical platonism is the theory that suggests mathematics is something that humans discovered as it proposes that mathematical objects exist abstractly as well as independent of human existence. This essentially means that all the mathematics that we know of has always existed and will continue to regardless of whether we discovered it or not. An example of this is the laws of Physics; these have always existed and would