Mathematics

a human construction in the face of the complexity of phenomena and reality

Abstract

The research described in the following pages is theoretical and bibliographic, and focuses on the discussion about two opposing views on the nature of mathematics: discovery x creation. A historical examination leads to the understanding that primordial mathematics was anchored in induction, in addition to being assumed as a discovery and as something equivalent to the analyzed phenomena. Over time, mathematics, especially deductive, has become more complex, generating increasingly improved models. Even so, the models were (and are) far from the complexity of the phenomena and, ultimately, away from the presumed reality. Such a separation is indicative (Obs.: here is the core of the inquiry exposed in this text) that mathematics (inductive or deductive) results from elaborations, instead of coming from discoveries. The proposition of reflections, in the school environment, about the essence of mathematics, constitutes one of the needs defended by the author of the present article. Among other things, such reflections, favoring the idea of mathematics-creation, would raise the students’ self-esteem, who would begin to accept mathematics as something encompassable by the limits of the capacity of people in general.