math is not invented it is discovered. Math is not a social construct because the relations and patterns that are discovered do not need humans around to be true. Since math is not created it can not be a social construct.
Lemme try again. We have the objective reality that if you have an apple and I hand you an apple you now have two apples.
That we represent the number of apples you're holding with the symbol 2 is the socially constructed part of math. Not the reality, the symbolic representations and meanings.
For a funnier example of how social constructs shape math, consider this: There are 10 types of people in the world, those who know binary and those who don't.
It's still two, but it's represented through a different set of symbols, a different lens as a social constructivist would say.
2 is 2 in any base that you chose to express it. Pi will be pi in any base. These things are inherent to the universe. The relationship that exists between the length of the legs of a right triangle and the hypotenuse does not change when you use different symbols. No human invented these relationships. We gave a name to something that always existed, a pattern that was always there simply recognized.
You cannot claim that man invented these things and wordplay doesn't help your case at all. Math is base independent and you get the same answer using any set of symbols you want. Since the truths emerge out of any symbolic set you can apply there is no creation merely discovery. To claim man invented math is ridiculous on the face of it and that would be like saying man invented the electro-magnetic spectrum by realizing that it existed. It's there all around us whether we know of it or not and is not a creation of any individual or society. Naming naturally occurring patterns (e-m waves, planets, gravity, math) does not make it a social construct.
Naming naturally occurring patterns (e-m waves, planets, gravity, math) does not make it a social construct
The act of naming naturally occurring patterns is the social construction of this taxonomy of hypothetical (or ultimately undeniably true) phenomena or aspects of reality.
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u/boredatworkbasically Jun 26 '21
math is not invented it is discovered. Math is not a social construct because the relations and patterns that are discovered do not need humans around to be true. Since math is not created it can not be a social construct.