Who was the first thinker to postulate that numbers are real, not abstractions?
A. Hui Shih
B. Parmenides
C. Pythagoras
D. Aristotle
*please explain i don't understand this.
The correct answer is C. Pythagoras.
To understand this concept, we need to look at the historical development of mathematical thinking. In ancient times, there were two contrasting views about the nature of numbers - whether they were real or merely abstractions.
Parmenides, a Greek philosopher who lived around the 5th-century BCE, held the view that reality is unchanging, and that the physical world is an illusion. According to him, everything that exists is one, and change is merely an illusion. This perspective implies that numbers are abstract concepts and not real.
However, Pythagoras, another Greek philosopher and mathematician who lived around the same time as Parmenides, had a different view. Pythagoras is known for his contributions to geometry, and he believed that numbers have a real existence in the universe.
Pythagoras' belief in the real existence of numbers can be seen through his famous theorem, which states that in a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides. This theorem demonstrates the relationship between the physical lengths of the sides of a triangle and the numbers associated with those lengths.
So, Pythagoras was the first thinker to postulate that numbers are real, not merely abstractions. His view eventually became influential in the development of mathematics and is still widely accepted today.