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8. Human mathematics

  • Ole Ravn (author)
Chapter of: Breaking Images: Iconoclastic Analyses of Mathematics and its Education(pp. 175–194)

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Metadata
Title8. Human mathematics
ContributorOle Ravn (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0407.08
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0407/chapters/10.11647/obp.0407.08
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightOle Ravn
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-12-11
Long abstractThis chapter discusses how we can think about mathematics as a human enterprise. It takes as its starting point the portrait of a European tradition that has considered mathematics as essentially a non-human realm. As a challenge to this tradition, a Wittgensteinian interpretation of mathematics as a special type of language among all the human languages is outlined and used to develop a platform for understanding mathematics as ‘human mathematics’. This conception is finally given shape through two discussions, first through a challenge to the positioning of mathematics in our contemporary universities in close proximity to the natural and technological sciences. Instead, a narrowing of the gap between the sciences and the humanities with a consequent repositioning of mathematics in the epistemological landscape of our knowledge institutions is advocated. Secondly, a human mathematics conception is discussed in relation to learning and teaching. Connections are made to socio-cultural learning theory, and it is argued that the concepts of ‘fog of mathematics’ and ‘centreless mathematics’ can help in reconfiguring how to think about the learning of ma thematics.
Page rangepp. 175–194
Print length20 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Ole Ravn

(author)
Associate Professor at the Department of Culture and Learning at Aalborg University

Ole Ravn was an associate professor at the Department of Culture and Learning of Aalborg University, Denmark. In 2004, he finished his doctoral dissertation with the title “Exploring the Borderland: A Study on Reflections in University Science”. Has been leader of the study board for education, learning, and philosophy, and coordinator of the PBL Research Unit at the Department for Learning and Philosophy. Has published broadly in mathematics education, philosophy of mathematics, and theory of science.

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