Play-Doh®

Philosophers rarely pass up an opportunity to invent crazy questions and then run straight off a cliff while grappling with the questions.  Philosophers are the folks responsible for giving us, as example, this question: Why is there something rather than nothing?   I suppose that is a valid question, but I am presently a bit more concerned about where I left my twice-as-smarter-than-me-phone.

While the rest of us have remained busy building an assortment of widgets to make life “easier” and taking out our daily garbage, some in the metaphysical community have been grappling with mathematics.  No, philosophers are not crunching numbers or making a cat’s cradle with string theory.  They are concerned about something a bit more basic.  The metaphysical question underlying all is this: Did we invent mathematics or did humans merely discover the mathematic numbers and logic that naturally underlies the operation of all things?

   

This is not a new question.  The question is as ancient as Plato and as recent as (forgive me) Play-Doh.  Plato argued that mathematics is the natural glue that binds together the entire universe and that we simply discovered the existing knit of numbers. Other philosophers have insisted, before eventually plunging off a cliff, that we developed mathematics as a handy way to explain the mystical clockworks surrounding us.  Play-Doh never actually made any claims for either school of thought, but I have always had fun with Play-Doh.

There is something to be said for fun.

Some deep thinkers, operation under the assumption that math is an invention, have managed a notable level of over-thinking.  On this side of the equation (forgive me again), several theories have been developed.  Logistic theory, for example, claims that math is simply an extension of normal human logic.  Formalist theory gives normal people a headache.  Intuitionist theory is wholly inexplicable.  Fictionalist theory, as I understand it, puts mathematics on equal footing with fairytales such as Rapunzel.

Maybe Play-Doh is onto something.

--Mitchell Hegman