Thursday 27 August 2015

Mathematical Idea Analysis


I was switched onto George Lakoff and Rafael Núñez' seminal work Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being this summer. Understanding it was quite difficult for someone like me who's not a cognitive scientist, but the writing is very clear and the ideas are fascinating. When we finally got all the way to the Euler equation in the fourth case study I felt like applauding!





I do have some issues with their interpretation of the consequences of the theory as a total refutation of the Platonic position (regarding the independent existence of mathematical objects), but that doesn't invalidate what they say regarding the cognitive structures behind mathematical thought.

However, I'm looking forward to sharing some of this thinking with this year's cohort of trainees. It's always good to look at the "nuts and bolts" of our subject, but here we'll be investigating how the nuts and bolts themselves are made!

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