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Is Math Invented or Discovered?

Mathematics is both invented and discovered according to the document. While early humans may have accidentally discovered mathematical concepts when inventing language and using letters as numbers, mathematics as a formal system is a human construct invented to describe patterns in the physical world. If the universe disappeared, mathematics would no longer exist as it is a product of the human mind that we develop to suit our purposes rather than being objectively present in nature.

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678 views1 page

Is Math Invented or Discovered?

Mathematics is both invented and discovered according to the document. While early humans may have accidentally discovered mathematical concepts when inventing language and using letters as numbers, mathematics as a formal system is a human construct invented to describe patterns in the physical world. If the universe disappeared, mathematics would no longer exist as it is a product of the human mind that we develop to suit our purposes rather than being objectively present in nature.

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Matrix
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Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered?

Answers to this question varies a lot as there is no pure answer whether Math is invented or
discovered. However, according to my research. Mathematics is simply an invented logic
exercise with no existence outside mankind’s conscious thought. It is a language of abstract
relationship based on patterns discerned by brains built to use those patterns to invent useful but
artificial order from chaos.

According to my own theory, I think that mathematics was ‘discovered’ by early humans by
accident or by coincidence while inventing and constructing the earliest languages. Thus, they
accidentally or coincidentally ‘invented’ mathematics due to the fact that math from early
civilizations tend to have their letters as numbers, an example would be the Roman letter ‘V’ that
was also used as the Roman numeral V that translates to number 5. And math has been used
since the invention of language and culture, math has been developed since man learned how to
trade and the use of currency.

According to my further research, Math is a human construct. The only reason mathematics is
admirably suited describing the physical world is that we invented it to do just that. It is a
product of the human mind and we make mathematics up as we go along to suit our purposes. If
the universe disappeared, there would be no mathematics in the same way that there would be no
football, tennis, chess or any other set of rules with relational structures that we contrived.
Mathematics is not discovered, it is invented. This is the non-Platonist position.

Then again, the answer varies from one source to another. There is no exact evidence whether it
was discovered or invented, but theoretically sometimes it can be both. So put in simpler terms:
“We discovered math, but we invented numbers and symbols to understand them.”

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