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What is your opinion on the mathematical fictionalism/platonism/nominalism debate? I personally prefer nominalism (I might discuss this further in the comments, though I'm obviously not attempting to prove it here), but I haven't seen any mathematical philosophy that doesn't have some possible holes in its arguments. Thoughts?

#Philosophy

Easy Math Editor

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Comments

Mathematics with respect to Philosophy. I find the theme very interesting. Want to know more.

What does fictionalism/platonism/nominalism in Mathematics mean?

Soumo Mukherjee - 6 years, 3 months ago

Fictionalism is the belief that math is actually false. Platonists believe in "mathematical objects" so that the statement 2+1=3 means that the object 2 plus the object 1 is 3. Nominalism defines math as it applies to real life, like one thing plus two things is three things.

Cole Wyeth - 6 years, 3 months ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$