// I'm sure Jim360 gave a deep and lengthy view on this some time back//
he sure did - he who is just about to present a PhD in pure maff
two schools of course: Platonists - history or theory of ideas - held that they were independent and discovered - "hello I am a little theorem and I am waiting to be discovered"
and a fella named Brouwer who in the 19th cent said that it was all a question of combining symbols according to rules and then interpreting them - 'ah yes so this means...,.......'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brouwer%E2%80%93Hilbert_controversy,
and the answerbank thread is
https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Science/Question1629117-2.html
(Mathematics created or invented?) Nigh in a reflective mood
but the pure mathematician was moved to quip side splittingly
//Once again, PP, but in coherent sentences this time please :P//(*)
as Brouwer da hoover meant absolutely nothing to him. A really depressing day in my life as maff on AB meant nuffin except an opportunity to say really clever things - even for the graduates in the subject. another normal day on AB clearly
and a thread on which TTT himself shone with a few one-liners - I think he was a platonist that time ( always there waiting to be discovered)
(*) this is equivalent to a physicist quipping playfully
" Ein stein? is that what you say when you go into a bier keller? ter daaah!"
or a pharmacist: "morphine? hey but when did you have the first feen? ter daaah !"or
Sqad, : I am not angry I have just run out of patience !
I still recommend Jeremy Gray ideas of space and time
see other thread