Abstract
The previous chapter reached the furthest limits of what is possible in the way of mathematical knowledge with the cognitive skills of animals and infants. Obviously those abilities are very limited when it comes to doing traditional mathematics. We may share 98% of our genes with chimpanzees, but chimpanzees are not surprised by that fact.1 They are incapable of being surprised by that, because they cannot understand it. They lack the relevant cognitive abilities - the same intellectual cognitive abilities that are needed for reading diagrams, visualizing, using mathematical symbols, and understanding proofs.
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© 2014 James Franklin
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Franklin, J. (2014). Knowing Mathematics: Visualization and Understanding. In: An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137400734_12
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137400734_12
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