A view in the philosophy of mathematics which insists that mathematical entities (numbers, sets, proofs, and so on) can only be said to exist if they can be constructed; that is if some method can be specified for arriving at them on the basis of things we accept already.
One advantage of this is that various paradoxes can be excluded before they arise. A disadvantage may be that certain things are excluded that appear to be intuitively acceptable.
Varieties of constructivism include intuitionism, and (usually) finitism, while formalism is sometimes included and sometimes contrasted with it.
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