All knowledge methods, like language, mathematics, logic, and geometry, are human inventions and the purpose of them all is to make it possible for human being to conceptually identify the facts of reality. Numbers were invented to make it possible to identify those facts of reality that have quantity as one of their attributes, like collections of animals, coins, and family members, and counting is the method invented to establish those quantities.surreptitious57 wrote: ↑Fri Feb 07, 2020 3:36 am A more profound question other than are numbers man made [ yes they are ] is was mathematics discovered or invented
One that sadly does not have a definitive answer to it although then again neither does any other philosophical question
So both questions are easily and exactly answered. Mathematics was invented to deal with the fact some aspects of reality have quantity as attributes (an ontological fact), but the mathematical concepts, as inventions, only exist in human minds (epistemologically).