IS MATH INVENTED, DISCOVERED, OR BOTH? (cross posted) “Question for you Curt – d

IS MATH INVENTED, DISCOVERED, OR BOTH?

(cross posted)

“Question for you Curt – do you believe mathematics to be invented, discovered, or an element of both?” – Davin Eastley

Invented.

The natural world does not have this flexibility so the natural world can be expressed in mathematical terms. The natural world must of necessity be a subset of mathematical possibilities. Even mathematical possibilities are most often determined by the numerical base rather than

For example, is Pi a number then, or the name of an operation (function)?

All numbers are a ratio, and must be to be identical. 3=3/1 : three equals three one’s. One represents some unit – an arbitrary category, unit, or an instance. So 1 = 1/1 of some category, unit or instance. We use zero, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten as names for natural numbers, and then use the OPERATION of positional notation to produce names for the rest (with ten, eleven and twelve added for antique convenience).

The difficulty in training humans to generalize these names and operations so that they may be used as analogies in multitudinous contexts tends to confuse ordinary minds, who then Platonize these names. But just because we can arbitrarily say that we IDENTIFY one of anything, and can from that singular act of identity, produce the full range ratios and functions of mathematics, does not mean anything more than that if we practice we can create those multitudinous ratios and functions (operations).

Simple people are misled by the same process when anthropomorphizing divinities – which are a form of very abstract moral calculation – a sort of specialized mathematics. Educated people often ridicule this primitive form of reason. Then at the same time, in the very next breath, make the mistake of Platonizing mathematics, which is likewise to believe in ‘magic’. To say that numbers ‘exist’ or are ‘discovered’ is … intellectually embarrassing. It means that one uses a tool like an ape but fails to grasp the reason that the tool performs the function that it does.

Math can be accurately correspondent with anything we choose to measure, as long as what we choose to measure can be expressed in constant relations. Unfortunately we have not yet conceived of a means of measuring inconstant relations. Although, I’ve written elsewhere, that this is most likely a problem of data collection and computation not one of impossibility.