The Unseen Importance of Mathematics by Charles

The Unseen Importance of Mathematics by Charles - March 2017 Scholarship Essay

All too often I overhear comments to the sentiment of “Math is pointless; I’ll never need it.” I seldom intervene in whatever conversation birthed these statements, but they notwithstanding boil my blood. Admittedly, many of my peers will never use the concepts of trigonometry or calculus in their lives or careers post-graduation -- one need not know how to evaluate a surface integral to become an artist or psychologist. Certainly many will find use for the problem-solving and critical-thinking skills mathematics develops, but even that is far too limited a scope for the value of a mathematics-infused curriculum. The true value of math lies not in what it may tell us about the universe in which we live, but rather in what it may tell us about the value of ourselves.
I consider myself a mathematical realist -- while it is a topic hotly debated even at the top ranks of academia, mathematics in my eyes is little more than a deterministic system for quantifying the universe. That is, if I have two pebbles in one hand and two in the other, I will have four pebbles, never five, never two. The functions inherent in and essential to number theory -- addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, the trigonometric functions -- have always been present operators in our universe and in some way may be derived from our simple stone relation; as all higher, more abstract functions, transformations, and constants are defined in terms of these basic functions, they too had simply lain in patience for some mathematician to discover and realize their magnitude. It follows that the proof or conclusion of every theorem or line of reasoning exists and has always existed, no matter how elusive.
The line of reasoning put forth by realists like myself is undoubtedly analogous to the crises we all face, and continues to be so long after our final math classes. While high schoolers like myself live their developing years in a crisis of identity, struggling to carve their own path in life, I realize that each of us is our own mathematical system, still in its infancy: while one may not have discovered a basic operation such as addition, there is and has always been an underlying framework of theorems unseen, more complex than the mind can yet comprehend. In short, mathematics should be respected by all, if not for its academic value, for its inspiration that, despite our fears to the contrary, we all have purpose, a pathway through life, and a master plan that is more complex than we can ever anticipate -- we need not create it; we only need to find it.