Growth and Change in Mathematics

A. Gardiner
Additional contact information
A. Gardiner: University of Birmingham, Department of Mathematics

Chapter Chapter I.2 in Infinite Processes, 1982, pp 13-23 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract You may notice that the title (and the contents) of this and the previous chapter contradict the idea that mathematics consists of a fixed and unchallengeable stock of truths. Should this come as a surprise? How are mathematical ideas born? How do they grow? In what sense does mathematics itself “evolve”? There are as one might expect no easy answers. In the long term one simply has to keep such questions permanently in the back of one’s mind, ready to take advantage of any new example which might provide some unexpected insight. But in the short term, the challenge is to begin, somehow or other, to make sense of such questions. We should not perhaps expect at the outset to make much sense of historical examples, but we can at least begin by reflecting how our own view of mathematics has changed. If we do this, then it should soon become apparent that our own private view of mathematics is never rigidly fixed, but changes as we grow.

Keywords: Negative Number; Linear Factor; Symbolical Algebra; Infinitesimal Quantity; Plex Number (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1982
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-1-4612-5654-0_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9781461256540

DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4612-5654-0_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().