Evolutionary Foundations of Mathematics

Ruhi Tuncer ()

No 11-3, GIAM Working Papers from Galatasaray University Economic Research Center

Abstract: We propose a simple cognitive model where qualitative and quantitative comparisons enable animals to identify objects, associate them with their properties held in memory and make naive inference. Simple notions like equivalence relations, order relations are used. We then show that such processes are at the root of human mathematical reasoning by showing that the elements of totally ordered sets satisfy the Peano axioms. The process through which children learn counting is then formalized. Finally association is modeled as a Markov process leading to a stationary distribution.

Keywords: Cognitive system; equivalence relations; order relations; naive logic; Peano axioms; order precedes number; association; Markov chain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 22 pages
Date: 2011-03-03, Revised 2011-03-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-evo
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://giam.gsu.edu.tr/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/WP-11-03.pdf Full text (application/pdf)

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:ris:giamwp:2011_003

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in GIAM Working Papers from Galatasaray University Economic Research Center Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Renginar Senses Dayangac ().