Are numbers real or illusory?

[abandonist]

It's actually my finger.

 

[hk_golgatha]

This thread has been jacked so hard by the last few posts.

In response to the question, I don't think numbers themselves exist. I feel that they are representations created by man to help describe that which is observed in nature. The relationships numbers are used to define are absolutely real, the numbers themselves are not.

But if numbers describe what is always observed in nature... wouldn't that make numbers a scientific law?

I just blew my own mind.

 

[acrcmb]

Three eyes would probably be even better though right? You want to see something crazy look at a Dragonfly wing under a microscope.

Not really it wouldn't add anything to the vision the two eyes cover that, you see it on predators like lions that rely heavily on eye sight, they don't have a 3rd eye because it wouldn't actually help them instead the quality of the two eyes is better.

 

[ilyti]

Here is one banana:

Here's two bananas:

You guys are overthinking this.

 

[Idontpersonally]

 

[Bodes]

If I am correct, a number is a unit of measurement. It is transcribed via a symbol. For example: two = 2. But two can also be written as II. Both 2 and II are symbols, but each symbol represents the same unit of measurement.

Sorry, a unit of measurement is something to give a number a meaning. I.e. cm or kg.
2, two, II etc. by it self is a scalar or a magnitude of size.
Not dissin', educatin'!

Numbers are just something man has devised to help make things logical.

See banana response ilyti posted earlier.