Mathematics, Form and Function: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:22, 25 October 2012

Revision as of 14:36, 15 November 2012

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== Mathematics and human activities==

Throughout his book, and especially in chapter I.11, Mac Lane informally discusses how mathematics is grounded in more ordinary concrete and abstract human activities. The following table is adapted from one given on p.  35 of Mac Lane (1986). The rows are very roughly ordered from most to least fundamental. For a bullet list that can be compared and contrasted with this table, see section 3 of ''[[Where Mathematics Comes From]]''.

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"

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|-

|Building; shaping

|[[Shape]]; [[point (geometry)| point]]

|[[Set (mathematics)|Sets]] of [[point (geometry)|points]]; [[geometry]]; [[pi]]

|-

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|Choosing; [[gambling]]

|[[Probability|Chance]]

|[[Probability theory]]; [[mathematical statistics]]; [[Measure_Measure (mathematics)|measure]]

|}

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* [[Reuben Hersh]], 1997. ''What Is Mathematics, Really?'' Oxford Univ. Press.

*[[George Lakoff]] and [[Rafael E. Núñez]], 2000. ''[[Where Mathematics Comes From]]''. Basic Books.

* {{cite book |first=Saunders |last=Mac Lane |title=Mathematics, Form and Function |year=1986 |publisher=Springer-Verlag |idisbn=ISBN 0-387-96217-4}}

* [[Leslie White]], 1947, "The Locus of Mathematical Reality: An Anthropological Footnote," ''Philosophy of Science 14'': 289-303. Reprinted in Hersh, R., ed., 2006. ''18 Unconventional Essays on the Nature of Mathematics''. Springer: 304–19.

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[[Category:Mathematics books]]

[[Category:Philosophy of mathematics]]

[[Category: Cognitive science literature]]