2006-11-17 13:37:29 · 12 answers · asked by Dante 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Mathematics is a collection of methods that were disvented and inscovered. The "truths" of mathematics are little more than the postulates that are the results of the development of abstract systems of symbols and operators that are consistent, void of contradictions, and as complete as possible. Any such system will have its own set of "truths". Please note that these "truths" have nothing to do with a physical reality. They are merely the result of the systems.
Some systems are useful models of the physical reality of our universe. Most are not. Since the general public only knows about the systems that are useful they think that is all there is to mathematics and think that it has some "universality" and that mathematics is reflecting some uniqueness and specialness about the universe.
Since we have no way of determining if any system is complete, there is always room for new discoveries and the inventions of new methods. New systems are always possible and there doesn't appear to be a way of proving there are no new systems possible. Most are not useful in any sense of the world.
Mathematics are like games that are invented, but the important aspects of mathematics are often discovered after they are invented, that is, once you set up the rules and start playing the game.
2006-11-17 14:05:06 · answer #1 · answered by Alan Turing 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The forms of mathematical expression were invented. Consider, for example, the invention of Arabic numeral notation which displaced the earlier and more cumbersome Roman numeral notation which had previously been in vogue. But the underlying mathematical truths exist independently of human thought and therefore were discovered. Binary notation as used in computer languages, for example, is a man-made invention. But the form invented by man "captures" and "expresses" an underlying reality which exists independent of that specific notational form.
2006-11-17 22:09:43 · answer #2 · answered by Seeker 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The principles in Mathematics were discovered. The relationships among the sides of a right-angled triangle have always been in existence but it took a person (Pythagoras) to discover them.
2006-11-17 22:01:09 · answer #3 · answered by springday 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Depends on whether you mean simple arithmetic, or modern theorems. Arithmetic has been around ever since people had the need and ability to record economic transactions (about 5500 years ago is our earliest current record). People eventually 'discovered' you could do all kinds of interesting things with numbers. The Egyptians and Babylonians found other practical uses for arithmetic in construction, accounting and agriculture. Pythagoras (6C bce) could be said to be the father of mathematics as we know it today, gathering bits and pieces of ideas from India, Egypt and Babylonia, and combining with his own ideas to form the concepts of number theory and numerical logic. He took numbers from being merely things that were used to count with, to being appreciated and respected in their own right.
2006-11-17 22:03:14 · answer #4 · answered by Diocletian 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It's late for me, but since I'm GOOD not GOD, I offer this.
And, so , but, Consider this.
OG emerged from the cave,,,HUNGRY. Og needed/wanted to sate that hunger. Hence OG either stumbled upon road kill, or created it, in hunger. The BOUNTY, which evolved into mathematics, was that OG happened to be privy to TWO forms of being sated,,,while a late waking OOG, only managed ONE.
OG and OOG compared, and noticed, ONE possessed more than the other,,, Badda Bing,,, mathematics,,,"Discovered."
Certainly that may have evolved, within minutes, to negative Math,,,as OOG chose to possess OG's "left over" quantity.
Steven Wolf
In which case OOG may have INVENTED GREED?
2006-11-17 23:36:17 · answer #5 · answered by DIY Doc 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Math is the only one true religion...it was discovered - certainly not invented!
2006-11-17 21:42:42 · answer #6 · answered by hollyberry 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
both- math is in nature, and therefore should be discovered, and it is for us to invent and add on to what nature has given us. this goes in many things, not just math, i think.
2006-11-17 23:15:14 · answer #7 · answered by rapunzel 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
discovered, because it existed since forever, but the human race was oblivious to it until they got smart enough to figure it out.
2006-11-17 21:54:21 · answer #8 · answered by guess2 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Actually it doesn't really exist,,so neither..2 plus banana might equal blue..
2006-11-18 01:11:38 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
both, the knowledge exisist in everyones brain but was more indepthly invented.
2006-11-17 21:45:25 · answer #10 · answered by Dakota H 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋