Varieties of maverick philosophy of mathematics

Abstract

Reuben Hersh is a champion of maverick philosophy of mathematics. He maintains that mathematics is a human activity, intelligible only in a social context; it is the subject where statements are capable in principle of being proved or disproved and where proof or disproof brings unanimous agreement by all qualified experts; mathematicians’ proof is deduction from established mathematics; mathematical objects exist only in the shared consciousness of human beings. In this paper I describe my several points of agreement and few points of disagreement with Hersh’s views.