Abstract
The 1990s could be called The Decade of Sociology in mathematics education. It was during those years that the sociology of mathematics became a core ingredient of discourse in mathematics education and the philosophy of mathematics and mathematics education. Unresolved questions and uncertainties have emerged out of this discourse that hinge on the key concept of social construction. More generally, what is at issue is the very idea of “the social”. Within the framework of the general problem of “the social”, we want to open a discussion of boundaries and margins in mathematics and mathematics education. By theorizing the divisions of purity and danger, we will be able to better understand the intersection of logic, mathematics, and thinking with gender, race, and class, and morals, ethics, and values in the classroom. The process of transforming the sociology of mathematics and the sociology of mind into pedagogical tools for mathematics educators and philosophers of education has already begun. One of the tasks before us is the development of a more profound and at the same time more practical grasp of “the social”. Our objective in this paper is to move ourselves and our readers in the direction of just such a grasp of the social.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M.M. Bakhtin (1981) The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays University of Texas Press Austin, TX
M.M. Bakhtin (1986) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays University of Texas Press Austin, TX
B. Booss M. Niss (Eds) (1979) Mathematics and the Real World Birkhouser Boston
C. Boyer (1968) A History of Mathematics John Wiley and Sons New York
R. Collins (1998) The Sociology of Philosophies Harvard University Press Cambridge, MA
S. Dehaene (1997) The Number Sense Oxford University Press New York
D. DeLillo (1982) The Names Alfred A. Knopf New York
M. Douglas (1986) How Institutions Think Syracuse University Press Syracuse
E. Durkheim (1961) The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life Collier Books New York
E. Durkheim M. Mauss (1963) Primitive Classification University of Chicago Press Chicago
E. Durkheim (1995) The Elementary Forms of Religious Life The Free Press New York
L. Fleck (1979) Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact University of Chicago Press Chicago
M. Foucault (1972) The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language Pantheon Books New York
Geertz, C.: 1983, Art as a cultural System, pp. 94.-120 In C. Geertz (ed.), Local Knowledge. New York: Basic Books.
Goethe, J.W. von: 1963, Faust, trans. by W. Kaufman, New York: Anchor Books.
E. Hamilton H. Cairns (Eds) (1989) Plato: The Collected Dialogues Princeton University Press Princeton
G.H. Hardy (1967) A Mathematician’s Apology Cambridge University Press Cambridge
R. Hersh (1997) What is Mathematics, Really? Oxford University Press New York
P. Hoffman (1998) The Man Who Loved Only Numbers Hyperion New York
Johnson G. (1998). Useful invention of absolute truth: what is math?. The New York Times, Science Times 10: 1, 6.
R. Kanigel (1991) The Man Who Knew Infinity Charles Scribner’s Sons New York
K. Marx (1958) Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 Foreign Languages Press Moscow
Mead, G.H.: 1947, Mind, Self and Society: From the Perspective of a Social Behaviorist, C.W. Morris, (ed.), Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
D. Nordon (1981) Les mathematiques pure n’existent pas! Editions Actes Sud Le Paradou
M. Resnik (1993) A Naturalized Epistemology for a Platonist Mathematical Ontology S. Restivo J.P. Bendegem ParticleVan R. Fischer (Eds) Math Worlds: Philosophical and Social Studies of Mathematics and Mathematics Education SUNY Press Albany NY 39–60
S. Restivo (1983) The Social Relations of Physics, Mysticism, and Mathematics Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht
S. Restivo (1992) Mathematics in Society and History Kluwer Academic Publishers Dordrecht
S. Restivo (1993) The social life of mathematics S. Restivo J.P. Bendegem ParticleVan R. Fischer (Eds) Math Worlds: Philosophical and Social Studies of Mathematics and Mathematics Education SUNY Press Albany NY 247–278
B. Schecter (1998) My Brain is Open Simon & Schuster New York
Smith, D.: 1996, Telling the truth after postmodernism, Symbolic Interaction 19, 3: 171–202.
D. Struik (1967) A Concise History of Mathematics Dover New York
E.P. Wigner (1960) ArticleTitleThe unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics 13 1–14
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Restivo, S., Bauchspies, W.K. The Will to Mathematics: Minds, Morals, and Numbers. Found Sci 11, 197–215 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-004-5917-y
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10699-004-5917-y