Is math real? Is physics math describable?

[Phrak]

Pythagorean-

I think I found the thread you speak of The Question : is mathematics discovered or invented?

 

[Pythagorean]

Pythagorean-

I think I found the thread you speak of The Question : is mathematics discovered or invented?

that's the one. Prepare for merging (please be gentle, mods!)

 

[Dark Fire]

"Don't confuse the map with the territory."

Deep..!

PS: My thread! :D

 

[Kenny_L]

Question : is mathematics discovered or invented?

Many inventions come from discoveries/accidents/refinement/improvements etc. And the methods that we have in mathematics didn't come from just one person, and didn't come overnight... it is like linux ... somebody started off with an idea and then it started to get built up/evolve ... like open source.

 

[Eidos]

This is my understanding of mathematics:
We state a list of axoims, use deductive logic and the variety of theorems pop out.
This collection is then called a theory.

Now, in choosing the axioms, have we not fixed any and all theorems that are derived from them? Hence it is a discovery, since those theorems exist as a result of the axioms and formal logic that operates on those axioms, even though we don't yet know what they are.

Related question: Where did formal logic come from, and how is it valid? <- This may in fact be a meaningless question since being valid is a logical state.

I would just like to know to say to someone who asks why we bother with being logical at all.

 

[Moridin]

Logic is just a means of non-contradictory i.e. meaningful communication.

 

[aranoff]

You all got it wrong about math. It is not a game, etc. Instead, math is based upon a collection of arbitrary, self-consistent statements (postulates, properties, etc.) Math is not true, but consistent. Science is the application of math to the world, and is true to the extent that it agrees (partially) with experiments and observations.

 

[Kenny_L]

This made me wonder - is math real? I don't mean real like a hammer - math is competely abstract, there is no doubt about it. However, is math really a game?

Maths is a discipline that has evolved, beginning from the time when somebody needed to start adding, and subtracting. Then later people discovered multiplication, division, and exotic features of working with numbers. And this discipline can be applied in conjunction with other disciplines to make our society more 'advanced'...building elaborate/sophisticated things etc.

If you're going to ask if maths is real, then you're going to have to ask 'are numbers real?'. It's up to you to choose what is real or not real.

 

[KAckermann]

Math is not something of our own devising.

Math exists on a Platonic plane independent of man and God. If there is a God, He used math as the scaffholding to construct the universe.