This paper proposes and defends a form of structural realism with a materialist character: mathematical structures are neither abstract entities in a Platonic sense nor pure symbolic conventions. Rather, they are formal systems constructed by human subjects through abstractive relationships and mathematical language, a process of construction constrained by the recalcitrance of objective reality. The objectivity of mathematics is rooted in practical constraints, the constraints of logic as the m…
Read moreThis paper proposes and defends a form of structural realism with a materialist character: mathematical structures are neither abstract entities in a Platonic sense nor pure symbolic conventions. Rather, they are formal systems constructed by human subjects through abstractive relationships and mathematical language, a process of construction constrained by the recalcitrance of objective reality. The objectivity of mathematics is rooted in practical constraints, the constraints of logic as the minimum operational condition of a mathematical system, and the structural consistency formed through the evolution of mathematical language. By introducing a tripartite classification of "real mathematical structures," "virtual mathematical structures," and "unconfirmed mathematical structures," supplemented by the distinctions of "invalid paradoxes" and "boundary-incomplete structures," this paper systematically clarifies the legitimacy of actual infinity, the pluralistic truth of non-Euclidean geometries, and the cognitive function of set-theoretic paradoxes. On this basis, the paper offers a unified theoretical treatment of the status of non-standard models, the classification of large cardinal axioms, and the hierarchical structure of logic. Three historical cases—complex numbers, non-Euclidean geometry, and set-theoretic paradoxes—further verify an elevation mechanism from "intra-systemic truth" to "truth of real consistency," demonstrating that mathematical truth gradually converges through practical feedback and logical constraints.