Video: Is mathematics discovered or invented?

If there’s a number of trees in a forest, and there’s no one there to count them, does that number exist? This is the same question as the existence of mathematics. Is mathematics discovered or invented? If human beings do not exist, would mathematics still exist?

Watch the video from TED as Jeff Dekofsky traces the history of this famous classic question and how mathematicians throughout history think about it.

What’s your take? Write your comments below.

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