Introduction: From Social Ontology to Mathematical Practice, and Back Again

In this essay we compare different strategies to study the possibility of applying philosophical theories of social ontology to mathematical practice and vice versa. Analyzing the contributions to the special issue Mathematical practice and social ontology, we distinguish four main strands: (1) to verify whether the very act of producing mathematical knowledge is an intersubjective activity; (2) to explain how the intersubjective nature of mathematics relates to mathematical objectivity; (3) to show how this intersubjectivity-based objectivity is the result of social practice; (4) to understand whether, given the social nature of intersubjectivity-based mathematical objectivity, mathematical objects can be described by analogy with social facts as institutions.