Is math discovered or invented?

This will be a forever debatable question no matter what the year is. Many mathematicians have proposed their own theory and here in this article will be seeking help from such mathematicians and will give our best to answer the question. Pythagoreans have a theory of themselves where the number 1 is identified as ‘the monad’ aka generator for all other numbers and source of all creation. According to them, in nature numbers are active agents.

Mathematics: An Invented Logic Activity

Few mathematicians have proposed the theory that mathematical statements do not exist no matter whether the existence of numbers is physically true or not. The reason behind this is the true values of them are just human creation.

This expresses that mathematics is just invented logic activity hardly proving any existence outside the consciousness of mankind. More specifically, it was also proposed that mathematics is nothing but an abstract relationship implying on patterns that are discerned by brains and are built to figure out artificial order from any bunch of chaos.

Some Theory Of Renowned Mathematician

  • Leopold Kronecker statement

According to Leopold Kronecker, a 19th-century mathematician from Germany quoted that ‘God created the natural numbers. All else is the work of men. Also, this renowned mathematician was propounded to the above-discussed topic of mathematics being an invented logic activity.

  • Father of non-Euclidean geometry, Henri Poincare

He proposed that Euclidean geometry dealing with flat surfaces was in fact universally not true and it was proven by the existence of non- Euclidean geometry that deals with the non-flat surfaces such as elliptical curvatures. This was in fact an outcome for using a particular set of game rules.

  • The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics

This theory was coined by a Nobel Prize laureate. He proposed that mathematics is real and in turn is discovered rather than invented by people.

Thus, the answer to the question is totally based on the concept that a person is observing.

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