Text 1: Mathematician Park argues that mathematical objects have an independent existence — that primes, theorems, and the natural numbers are discovered, not invented. The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in describing the physical world, she contends, is hard to explain unless mathematical structures are real features of reality.
Text 2: Mathematician Singh accepts the descriptive power of mathematics but resists Platonic conclusions. Mathematics, he argues, is a constructed language refined over centuries to track regularities humans care about. Its effectiveness reflects the fit of the tool to the user's purposes, not the existence of an abstract realm where triangles wait to be discovered.
The authors most clearly disagree about
- A
whether mathematics has practical applications.
- B
whether prime numbers exist.
- C
whether mathematics describes the physical world effectively.
- Dcheck_circle
whether mathematical objects exist independently of human minds.
Explanation
Both accept mathematics' descriptive power. They differ on the metaphysical status of mathematical objects. B captures the dispute.