October 8th, 2018

TOK

Bruno Briones 2nd B “Espol”

Homework

Is mathematics a discoverment or an invention?

Mathematics is an essential part of our diary life. From counting the number of fruits we

need for the whole week to developing sophisticated softwares, this area of knowledge is

present in every aspect of life, but, what is mathematics. Some people relate it to a human

invention while others argue that it is just another discoverment of something that already

existed. Having this in mind, in this essay I am going to write about what exactly is

mathematics, detailing if it is a human creation that surged in order of their necessities or

just another discoverment made through the pass of the years.

As a fundamental part of the Areas of Knowledge (AOK), Mathematics constitutes an

important part of the daily life of all humans. It could be defined as the abstract science that

studies numbers, quantity and space, developing all of its content in an individual way or

combining with other disciplines like chemistry or physics. Focusing in the main question

of this essay, mathematics can be related to an invention made by humans. People through

the pass of time developed a necessity to have an accounting record of all of their

transactions and commercial actions. Due to this situation, they progressively created

mathematics in order to supply their basic necessities. Once it was satisfied, people

continued developing more uses for mathematics, giving way to the modern math we know

nowadays. In the same way, this science lends itself to various professions although it was

focused in specific activities like commerce.

Without this AOK and all of its different uses, our life would be a chaos due to the lack of a

metric order based on numbers and precise formulas. By the same way, mathematics can´t

be a discoverment because it appears when humans decide to develop their own system to

guide their lifes.

As a way of conclusion, mathematics is an important AOK that is useful in a lot of

aspects in our daily life, complementing the basic calculations we have to do in our normal

routine. It should be mentioned that this science was a complete invention made by

humans, used to satisfy all of their necessities related to calculations and arithmetical

operations.

Sources:

- Babuschkin, D. (2015). Mathematics: Invented, or Discovered?. [online] The Unapologists.

Available at: http://theunapologists.com/mathematics-invented-or-discovered [Accessed

8 Oct. 2018].

- Hom, E. (2013). What is Mathematics?. [online] Live Science. Available at:

https://www.livescience.com/38936-mathematics.html [Accessed 8 Oct. 2018].

- Livio, M. (2015). Math: Dicovered, Invented or Both?. [online] The Nature of Reality.

Available at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/physics/2015/04/great-math-

mystery/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2018].