Comment by CJefferson
4 days ago
Except we can only describe those infinite series for a countably infinite number of the reals, so there are all these reals expressed by infinite series we don’t have any way to describe. Why do we need those ones? (To be clear, I realise this isn’t the current standard opinion of most mathematicians, I choose to be annoying).
It's been a while since I did abstract algebra, but I'm pretty sure that once you have the additive and multiplicative identities, the rest of the reals can be generated. Which is still a constructive process.
Regardless, the existence of the real numbers is not a matter of need. Their existence is a consequence of how mathematics is defined. Over-simplified, it's a case of if addition and multiplication work, then the real numbers must exist.
Usually, maths doesn't require us to overthink about anything metaphysical. Things either are or they aren't, the problem-solving approach taken to demonstrate a result one way or the other is the fascinating part.