Teach religiously neutral mathematics /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// What exactly are those religious dogmas in Western mathematics? The very word mathematics derives from “mathesis” which means learning. In Platos Meno, Socrates demonstrates an untutored slave boys innate knowledge of mathematics. He then argues that, since the boy did not learn mathematics in this life, he must have learnt it in a previous life, so he has proved the existence of the soul! Socrates concludes that all “learning” involves the soul recollecting its eternal ideas. In Platos Republic, he rejects the teaching of mathematics for its practical value, but prescribes it on the grounds that it is spiritually uplifting, like music. That notion of soul was, however, cursed by the post-Nicene church; how the links of religious belief to Western mathematics evolved subsequently is a complex story told for the layperson in my book Euclid and Jesus: How and why the church changed mathematics and Christianity across two religious wars.
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 16:46:13 +0000
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