[krcz]

It's a social construct in the the same sense anything not directly verifiable using senses is. Is there an Eiffel tower in Paris? Most people haven't seen it, so they can only accept the social consensus that it is there.

If one can afford it, they can travel to Paris and check themselves. The same with mathematical truth: if one has means (time, intelligence, access to training), they can check the proof themselves. Otherwise they need to trust the consensus.

So again, is the truth in mathematics just a social construct? In some sense, I guess, but probably not the one some people might assume hearing such a statement.

[tigerlily]

To illustrate the point further, once you get to Paris how can you be sure it's an Eiffel tower? I guess you have to ask the man in the street. See the truth of it is a social construct. And whether you accept this as truth is a social construct, and so on. QED.

[quonn]

> I guess you have to ask the man in the street.

How about checking with a GPS?

A social construct has nothing to do with simple facts about the universe. And whether the Eiffel tower exists as an object at a particular spot as indicated on maps is such a fact. And if there were maps that would place it elsewhere, those maps would be a lie. Even if the every single map ever made and every other person would deny that there is such a tower at that position one could still go there and check for oneself.

Maybe you are talking about the name? The fact that we call it the Eiffel tower? Well, that tower has a history and again one could lie about the history, who built it, how it was historically called as a matter of fact etc. But an observer would have seen who actually built this tower. It's a fact.