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“The question “is math real?” is answered in the epilog of this book. Cheng tells us that math is real because it is an idea and ideas are real.” Alright grea

• dasil003 3y ago
  What is “real”? Well, it’s just an idea… really
  • dekhn 3y ago
    There is, almost certainly, an objective universe that exists outside of human minds, and it also seems likely that all of mathematics can be determined through objective mechanisms.
• chongli 3y ago
  This is an idea that goes back to Pythagoras and Plato. Think of a triangle. Now draw that triangle on paper. If you look closely enough, you'll see "imperfections" in the triangle you just drew. Now ask yourself: "how do I know this thing I just drew is imperfect? Where did the idea of a perfect triangle come from?" Plato would say the perfect triangle comes from the realm of "forms". This mystical place which is "more real" than "reality" because everything there is perfect and everything here is just a flawed approximation. Plato also said that this is the place where our souls go when we die, and we engage in "congress" with the forms and then return to earth, reincarnated. When we learn things, we aren't learning something new but actually recalling memories of the forms. This is why everyone knows what a perfect triangle is but no one has ever seen one in the physical world.
  • dr_dshiv 3y ago
    Because the Platonic soul (psuche) is different from consciousness. Actually, Philolaus (first Pythagorean to write a book) said that conscious feelings come from the combination of the mathematical soul with the body. So, Pythagorean soul can be viewed as the set of logical or conceptual forms— which constitute a person, yet can also be passed on from person to person. That’s a very different kind of reincarnation…!
• bee_rider 3y ago
  Shoulda put that on the preface just to save everybody some time!
• hotnfresh 3y ago
  Redefining terms until the question doesn’t matter is a totally valid way to solve a problem /s
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• adrianmonk 3y ago
  As a data point, the author was interviewed on NPR's "The Indicator"[1], and the way this review summarizes it might not capture what her point was: > CHENG: I'm not trying to answer whether math is real or not. I'm trying to show that considering the question at all leads us to interesting thoughts. And in the end, what I say is that, with all these questions, I don't think there are yes-or-no answers, and we shouldn't claim that there are. What we should do instead is say there is a sense in which - you know, what is the sense in which math is real, and what is the sense in which math isn't real? > And the thing is, I think a lot of people who say math isn't real are using that to say, oh, so it's irrelevant and stupid. Why should we study it? It's made up. And what I want to say is that just because it is made up doesn't mean that it's irrelevant. And actually, the fact that it's kind of made up makes it really powerful because - well, it makes it really, in a way, more accessible because you don't need a lot of money to get it. All you need is an imagination. And I think that's a really amazing thing about it. And just like fiction isn't real, but fiction can give us insights about the world around us to highlight much more, specifically, things about society. And that's what I think is powerful about abstract math as well - because we're not constrained by reality. I haven't read the book, but it seems like the title may be a throwaway question meant to pique the reader's interest and say "let's get philosophical about math". --- [1] https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1193035114 https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1193035114