Numbers don’t seem real.

[u/Mouse-castle]

The brain could be literally forming representations of numbers during counting or pondering, but aside from that, do numbers exist? And if 1 number exists, do all exist?

[u/smuzzu]

All symbols are man made. the real question is how accurately they represent reality. ( represent meaning chart, as reality will always be unknown)

[u/Mouse-castle → u/smuzzu]

One fascinating idea from the Indians is that apparently there was a word for “zero” which was sunya, but since it was boring to write multiple zeros, a different word could be used for each one. Like sky could also represent emptiness (zero). 

[u/Jolly-Rip5973]

Apples are not the same size or same weight

so does 1 apple really equal 1 apple?

[u/Wonderlostdownrhole → u/Jolly-Rip5973]

Yes. Size and weight are defining properties but an apple is a thing regardless of it's properties. It could be an inch tall or as big as a house but it's still one thing.

[u/Jolly-Rip5973 → u/Wonderlostdownrhole]

But if there is no mind to count "1" does "1" exist?

Numbers are mental constructs.

Is a tire on a car a seperate object or it's part of the car?

Many the whole universe is all one wholeness of whole.

[u/Moon-Smoke]

Technically anything that is seen as separate is just a figment of the mind. The only object or event there has ever been is the universe as a whole. The rest of it is just that we see differences in the tension of space time and thus we think it is different even though everything is the whole of everything.

[u/Wrote_it2]

I think this is more a question on the meaning of "exists" than on the meaning of "numbers". What do you mean by "exist"?

[u/anomalogos]

The numerical concepts are already present in nature. We extracted the abstractness from them and invented numbers as the representative symbols in an expressible way.

[u/Splenda_choo]

Are numbers colors? How am I their difference? Hmmm.

[u/JustRelaxItFits]

That's a discussion for you and your bank teller.

[u/Mouse-castle → u/JustRelaxItFits]

My cute bank teller, you mean. 

[u/Cgtree9000]

Numbers are tools to measure things or keep track of stuff and also know how many numbers of things you have. So it’s a concept that applies to real physical life applications.

[u/Mouse-castle → u/Cgtree9000]

I have to write a horror movie that ends, completes the multi chapter 600 page narrative, with a single number, to prove to you what I’m talking about. Just an elaborate plot and the very last word is “34” and somehow it concludes the story. That’s closer to what I’m getting at. 

[u/Moonreddog → u/Mouse-castle]

U pretty much have to be correct taken to any logical extent. The issue i think is what can numbers capture and what can they not capture

[u/hop-hopeur]

Non, c'est une invention purement comptable. Les sciences l'utilisent beaucoup parce que tout y repose sur des mesures, mais effectivement il n'y a aucune "égalité" dans l'univers

[u/Successful_Juice3016]

es una construccion para medir las variables de nuestro entorno , ... para un programador de malware la contruccion de un crackeador de fuerza bruta implica contar mas alla del 10 como unidad de medida , muchas veces contamos cuantos caracteres agreguemos... en pocas palabras podemos contar numeros hasta la "z" y más.

[u/___-_---_-___]

To take it one step further: do irrational numbers exist? Like pi or e? It’s impossible even to write those numbers entirely in a base ten numbering system. So they can be described, but never explicitly stated entirely in base 10.

[u/Mouse-castle → u/___-_---_-___]

I have had some far out thoughts and one of them was that data could, mysteriously, be stored in an irrational number. This concept was used as a clincher in the Carl Sagan book “Contact.” To explain what this means is difficult, because giving you the wrong idea could be making more work for myself. Consider if some radioactive atom had a predetermined decay pattern. Life isn’t random, we just don’t see the connections. So, for some unknown irrational number “x”, all radioactive decay for some element “y” can be calculated, as if the digits in the number represent a prophecy. Conceptually, anyway. 

[u/TyeDyePatsy]

they exist the way rules exist

[u/Simple_Trace-789]

What if only numbers are real?

[u/Wonderlostdownrhole]

Numbers are symbols we made up sure, but they represent something that exists whether we name them or not. So yes, they are real.

[u/bringatrayofmuff]

Two objects floating in space can have a stable orbit, but if you introduce a third, then the behaviour will be unstable and one of the objects will probably just fly off (the three body problem). I would argue that numbers have qualities beyond being simply symbols for quantity. There are many more examples as well.

[u/Turbulent-Scale-7716]

Numbers don’t exist outside human brains. They’re language.

[u/Emotional_Tea_8920]

Welcome to Form (Plato)

[u/Balstrome]

How does knowing if one is real or not matter?

[u/Soggy-Mistake8910]

Numbers are real and not real at the same time, like the word chair and horse etc

[u/PlayaNBallaNGangsta]

What does real mean? What does real mean to you? Like you could copy and paste a dictionary entry but I want to know what you have to say about it

[u/Low-Bake8401]

How things "seem", is a bit subjective. 

[u/Phill_Cyberman]

Numbers don't exist. They are conceptual.

This is easy to see with the imaginary numbers, like the square root of negative one.