I address the historical emergence of the mathematical infinite, and how we are to take the infinite in and out of mathematics. The thesis is that the mathematical infinite in mathematics is a matter of method.
A more than sufficient starting point for the development of all currently accepted rigorous mathematics is provided by a pair of assumptions about how many individuals there are: the relative assertion that there are as many of them as there are small classes of them, and the absolute assertion that there are indescribably many of them. But explaining what the foregoing assertion means is more work than establishing that it is true.
We address aspects of mathematical Platonism and examine the possibility of Platonism viewpoint in mathematics in wake of recent devolopments in set theory.