Topics Mathematics

Question Does there exist a type of thing which could be called a mathematical fact? That is, are there true entities which would exist even if there were no minds to do the maths to discover and describe them? In other words, it is the understanding of all numerate human beings that the square root of 81 is 9. Would the square root of 81 still be 9 if there were no minds, human, numerate or otherwise?

Accepted:
December 14, 2007

Comments

There are lots of physicists who study the history of the universe: how the universe began, for example. When they do their calculations concerning, say, the evolution of the universe in the few seconds following the big bang, they do seem to assume that the square root of 81 was 9 even then, when there were no minds. And more generally, it's rather hard to see how the existence or non-existence of minds could affect what the square root of 81 is. Might 81 itself not have existed had there been no minds? How precisely did the existence of minds bring it into being? Was it just impossible before there were minds for there to be 81 stars in a certain region of space? I think not.