Skip to main content
Log in

A Dialogue on the Ethics of Mathematics

  • Article
  • Published:
The Mathematical Intelligencer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References

  • American Mathematical Society (2005). Ethical Guidelines of the American Mathematical Society. Retrieved from http://www.ams.org/about-us/governance/policy-statements/sec-ethics. (Accessed 6 July 2015).

  • Atweh, W. (2013). Is the good a desire or an obligation? The possibility of ethics for mathematics education. Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal, No. 27. Retrieved from http://people.exeter.ac.uk/PErnest/pome27/index.htm. (Accessed 6 July 2015).

  • Bloor, D. (1984). A sociological theory of objectivity. In: S. C. Brown, Ed. (1984) Objectivity and cultural divergence (Royal Institute of Philosophy lecture series, vol. 17), pp. 229–245. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Boylan, M. (2013). Mathematics education and relational ethics: dimensions and sources. Retrieved from http://www.esri.mmu. ac.uk/mect2/papers_13/boylan.pdf. (Accessed 6 July 2015).

  • Burnyeat, M. F. (2000). Plato on why mathematics is good for the soul. Proceedings of the British Academy, vol. 103. Retrieved from http://www.britac.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/103p001.pdf. (Accessed 15 September 2013).

  • Cole, J. (2008). Mathematical domains: social constructs? In: B. Gold and R. Simons, Eds., Proof and other dilemmas: mathematics and philosophy, pp. 109–128. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cole, J. (2013). Towards an institutional account of the objectivity, necessity, and atemporality of mathematics. Philosophia Mathematica (III) Vol. 21 (2013), pp. 9–36.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • D’Ambrosio, U. (1998). Mathematics and peace: our responsibilities. Zentralblatt für Didaktik der Mathematik (ZDM), Vol. 30, No. 3 (June 1998): pp. 67–73.

  • Davis, C. (1988). A Hippocratic oath for mathematicians? In: C. Keitel, Ed., Mathematics, education and society, pp. 44–47. Paris: UNESCO.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis, P. J. (2007). Applied mathematics as social contract. Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal, No. 22 (Nov. 2007). Retrieved from http://people.exeter.ac.uk/PErnest/pome22/ index.htm. (Accessed 2 May 2015).

  • Ernest, P. (1991). The Philosophy of Mathematics Education. London: Routledge.

  • Ernest, P. (1994a). The dialogical nature of mathematics. In: P. Ernest, Ed. Mathematics, education and philosophy: an international perspective. London: The Falmer Press, pp. 33–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ernest, P. (1994b). Conversation as a metaphor for mathematics and learning. Proceedings of British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics Day Conference, Manchester Metropolitan University, 22 November 1993, Nottingham: BSRLM, pp. 58–63.

  • Ernest, P. (1994c). An introduction to educational research methodology and paradigms. Exeter: University of Exeter School of Education.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ernest, P. (1998). Social constructivism as a philosophy of mathematics. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ernest, P. (1999). Forms of Knowledge in Mathematics and Mathematics Education: Philosophical and Rhetorical Perspectives. Educational Studies in Mathematics, Vol. 38, Nos. 1–3, pp. 67-83.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Ernest, P. (2009). The philosophy of mathematics, values and Keralese mathematics. In: P. Ernest, B. Greer, and B. Sriraman, Eds., Critical issues in mathematics education, pp. 189–204. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feyerabend, P. (1975). Against method. London: New Left Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fuller, S. (1988). Social epistemology. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gadamer, H.-G. (1986). The idea of the good in Platonic-Aristotelian philosophy (translated by P. Christopher Smith). New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press.

  • Gold, B., and Simons, R. Eds. (2008). Proof and other dilemmas: mathematics and philosophy. Washington, DC: Mathematical Association of America.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1972). Knowledge and human interests. London: Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1981). The theory of communicative action, 2 volumes. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag (translated by T. McCarthy, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1987, 1991).

  • Harding, S. (1986). The science question in feminism. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hersh, R. (1990). Mathematics and ethics. The Mathematical Intelligencer, Vol. 12, No. 3, 1990, pp. 13–15.

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Hersh, R. (1997). What is mathematics, really? London: Jonathon Cape.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Hersh, R. (2007). Ethics for mathematicians. Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal, No. 22 (Nov. 2007). Retrieved from http://people.exeter.ac.uk/PErnest/pome22/index.htm. (Accessed 1 May 2015).

  • Høyrup, J. (1980). Influences of institutionalized mathematics teaching on the development and organisation of mathematical thought in the pre-modern period. In: J. Fauvel and J. Gray, Eds., (1987). The history of mathematics: a reader, pp. 43–45. London: Macmillan.

  • Høyrup, J. (1994). In Measure, number, and weight. New York: SUNY Press.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Johannesen, R. L. (1996). Ethics in human communication. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, T. C. (2012). Ethics and finance: the role of mathematics. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_ id=2159196. (Accessed 15 September 2013).

  • Kant, I. (1781/1961). Critique of pure reason (translated by N. Kemp Smith). London: Macmillan, 1961.

  • Kincaid, H., Dupré, J., and Wylie, A. (2007). Value-free science: ideals and illusion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kitcher, P., and Aspray, W. (1988). An opinionated introduction. In: W. Aspray and P. Kitcher, Eds., (1988). History and philosophy of modern mathematics, pp. 3–57. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

  • Lakatos, I. (1976). Proofs and refutations: the logic of mathematical discovery. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Lakatos, I. (1978). The Methodology of Scientific Research Programmes (Philosophical Papers Vol. 1). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

  • Plato (2000). The republic (translated by B. Jowett). New York: Dover Publications.

  • Polanyi, M. (1958). Personal Knowledge. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Popper, K. (1959). The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London: Hutchinson.

  • Putnam, H. (1975). Mathematics, matter and method (Philosophical papers Vol. 1). Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

  • Putnam, H. (2002). The collapse of the fact/value dichotomy and other essays. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quine, W. V. O. (1953). From a logical point of view. New York: Harper Torchbooks.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Quine, W. V. O. (1960). Word and object. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Reichenbach, H. (1951). The rise of scientific philosophy. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Rorty, R. (1979). Philosophy and the mirror of nature. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Searle, J. R. (1995). The Construction of Social Reality. London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steen, L. A. (1988). The science of patterns, Science, Vol. 240, No. 4852: pp. 611–616.

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Tymoczko, T., Ed., (1986). New Directions in the Philosophy of Mathematics. Boston, MA: Birkhauser.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, L. S. (1986). Thought and language, (Translated by A. Kozulin). Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press.

  • Whitehead, A. N., and Russell, B. (1910). Principia mathematica, Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical Investigations. (Translated by G.E.M. Anscombe). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Paul Ernest.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Ernest, P. A Dialogue on the Ethics of Mathematics. Math Intelligencer 38, 69–77 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00283-016-9656-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00283-016-9656-z

Navigation