# numbers out there?

**Are numbers out there, or rules we invented?**

Platonists say numbers exist apart from any rulebook, and Gödel believed this. Formalists say math is only the rules we wrote down.

Connects to:
- [which cost?](https://mapideas.org/i/tr_q2)
- [three views](https://mapideas.org/i/tr_views)

Sources:
- [Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Platonism in the Philosophy of Mathematics](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/platonism-mathematics/)

Source: https://mapideas.org/i/tr_q3 · open on the map: https://mapideas.org/#tr_q3