If One Can Read and Write Then One Can Also Do Mathematics

Abstract

There are those that claim that they are good at reading and writing but they are not as good when it comes to mathematics. Actually the 3 R’s of reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic are more closely related than most people think. I will show in this essay that the origin of verbal language and mathematics depend on each other. In particular the mathematical skill associated with set theory is what gave rise to the origin of verbal language and verbal language allowed mathematics to evolve from a primitive set theory to arithmetic and all the beautiful structures of mathematics afterwards. So, if one is good at talking, reading and writing they have no excuse for doing poorly at mathematics especially arithmetic. It is important that we dispel this erroneous notion that one can be good with verbal language and be a disaster with numbers and mathematics. The manipulation of information which requires mathematical skills is as important in the information age and as being literate was in the age of the written word. Mathematics, as we will argue, is a language and today mathematical literacy is just as important as verbal literacy. So, let’s get started and examine the topology of mathematics in the mind and its interaction with verbal and written language from which it emerged and examine its connection with science, computing, the Internet and the World Wide Web, the languages of the Information Age. In fact, we will explore the notion that mathematics is part of an evolutionary chain of six languages. One does not ordinarily think of computing and the Internet as languages but I will demonstrate that speech, writing, mathematics, science, computing and the Internet form an evolutionary chain of six languages.