Fictionalism in Mathematics

“Fictionalism in the philosophy of mathematics is the view that mathematical statements, such as ‘8+5=13’ and ‘π is irrational’, are to be interpreted at face value and, thus interpreted, are false.” You’ve probably went through the same series of thoughts thinking that what you’re taking in math just might be nonsense. Fictionalists are typically driven to reject the truth of such mathematical statements because these statements imply the existence of mathematical entities (state of existence), and according to Fictionalists there are no such entities.

                What does all that mean? Fictionalism is an anti-realist report of mathematics in that it “denies the existence of a realm of abstract mathematical entities”. This means that people are trying to prove the non-existence of math.  Although Fictionalism says that mathematical statements implying the existence of mathematical realms are false, there is a sense in which these statements are true—they are true in the story of mathematics. This uses an idea form literature-fiction, where statements like ‘Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit’ is false, well, because there are no such things as hobbits, but they are true in Tolkien’s story.

            Referring to the Hobbit example, let’s take the simple and most known mathematical statement: 1<> 0. In the mathematical story, this is true in fact, but a recent mathematical equation discovered this is false.  We are going to prove that 1=0. Start with the addition of an infinite succession of zeros

Then recognize that 0 = 1 − 1

Applying the associative law of addition results in

Of course − 1 + 1 = 0

And the addition of an infinite string of zeros can be discarded leaving

This is just one of the many mathematical statements proved false.

All in all, Fictionalists are constantly trying to promote the mathematical fallacies or mistakes and there are people who oppose and try to prove otherwise, which is to say, they are trying to prove that Hobbits do exist even in real life. What do you think?

Written by:- Jenny Jumaian, 10