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A comment on Roger Penrose – Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered? [video]. Parent comment

Re:Roger Penrose – Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered? [v... by red75prime on Friday April 17, 2020 @07:03AM (#22897951)
Arithmetic existed long before its axiomatization. Arithmetic was useful and no one stumbled upon contradictions in it. So it was natural to suppose that it can be described by some axiomatic system. Peano found it.
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Re:Roger Penrose – Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered? [v... by kevin_thibedeau on Friday April 17, 2020 @10:06AM (#22899051)
It is a system for modeling concepts invented by man. Everything that falls out of such a system is a product of the invention. Numbers don't inherently exist. Everything derived from that concept can't be a "discovery".
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Re:Roger Penrose – Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered? [v... by red75prime on Friday April 17, 2020 @12:35PM (#22900460)
> Numbers don't inherently exist

How do we know that it is true?

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Re:Roger Penrose – Is Mathematics Invented or Discovered? [v... by kevin_thibedeau on Friday April 17, 2020 @12:38PM (#22900486)
They are symbols that we assign arbitrary meaning to. They are useful because of the axiomatic framework constructed to support them.
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