Reddit reviews Where Mathematics Come From: How The Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics Into Being
We found 7 Reddit comments about Where Mathematics Come From: How The Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics Into Being. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Where Mathematics Comes From Lakoff, Nunez
check out the book where mathematics comes from.
(all non fiction)
Where math comes from
http://www.amazon.com/Where-Mathematics-Comes-From-Embodied/dp/0465037712/
Metaphors we live by
http://www.amazon.com/Metaphors-We-Live-George-Lakoff/dp/0226468011/
I tend to be the oddball non-Platonist who things math is created, not discovered. Math that "works" sticks around.
Two readings that got me there: Metaphors we Live By, Where mathematics comes from. Both somewhat controversial.
>Consider that other life forms have knowledge of their environment but have no mathematical abstractions as we know them. So knowledge doesn't need any human abstraction. i.e. no words, no numbers. It (the structure of the universe) simply exists with or without humanity.
>http://www.amazon.com/Where-Mathematics-Come-Embodied-Brings/dp/0465037712/
I'd been meaning to look at Lakoff and Nuñez and this was a good impetus to look at it. What I learned is that in the first chapter they talk about the mathematical capabilities of (nonhuman) animals (pp. 21–23). Of course, raccoons can't do representation theory and owls can't do ordinal analysis (but some cats can do inner meow-del theory). Nonetheless, animals are capable of some level of mathematical abstraction. To use L&N's examples: rats can recognize small integers and some primates have been taught to calculate with numerals.
Why did you link to a reference which contradicts your assertions?
Does it help you do mathematics or is this just a curiosity?
The following book may interest you: Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being ....
You basically make abstract things more concrete...
> Dismissing the work of top minds in their field with such disparaging remarks is an impressive show of arrogance-
An argument from authority is no argument at all. Truth doesn't work on human ego, it just is.
More importantly the enlightenment was wrong about human reasoning, see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYmi0DLzBdQ
That means many of our abstractions are not correlated with what is true about the world. So remember maybe it is you who are illiterate next time! Remember, I can tell you the facts and you will not reason to the right conclusion.
>The kind of "knowledge" we attribute to animals isn't even the confused knowledge of preliterate superstition,
Nice to see your prejudice showing, the fact is animals have knowledge enough to navigate their environment. Once you admit that, you admit that life doesn't need human abstractions in order to survive. AKA other life forms without human awareness gather information about their environment and have no human abstract systems.
You're playing a language game like Wittgenstein said, the FACT that these organisms can gain knowledge about their environment disproves this threads raging hatred of the idea that you can have knowledge without mathematics as humans know it! Mother nature doesn't give a fuck about the rage of a certain kind of primate species.
http://www.amazon.com/Where-Mathematics-Come-Embodied-Brings/dp/0465037712/