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CfP topical collection of Synthese: Linguistically Informed Philosophy of Maths, Deadline: 15 Mar 2022
Call for Papers: Topical Collection of Synthese
Title: Linguistically Informed Philosophy of Mathematics: How the study of
mathematical texts contributes to the investigation of philosophical problems
Guest Editors: Bernhard Fisseni (University of Duisburg-Essen), Deborah Kant
(University of Hamburg), Deniz Sarikaya (University of Hamburg) and Bernhard
Schröder (University of Duisburg-Essen)
See also: https://www.springer.com/journal/11229/updates/19385258
Text is a crucial medium for transferring mathematical ideas, agendas, and
results within the scientific community and in educational contexts. This makes
the focus on mathematical texts a natural and important part of the
philosophical study of mathematics. Moreover, research on mathematical texts
can take advantage of the huge body of knowledge and toolbox of methods from
other disciplines such as linguistics and computer science to investigate
problems in the philosophy of mathematics. Linguistically informed research
addresses general questions of the philosophy of mathematics. Among those
philosophical questions are the following, including methodological reflections
on this approach.
- What are mathematical proofs, and which role does their textual
representation play for mathematical communication and theorizing?
- What is mathematical explanation of mathematical facts and how is it valued
by mathematicians?
- How have mathematical concepts developed historically? For instance, how does
the concept of a plane in Euclid differ from a modern geometric approach?
- What is the role of metaphor in mathematical practice?
- How do argumentative foundations change historically?
- How are mathematical objects conceptualized: is there a difference between
formal and textual approaches?
- (How) Do tools like LaTeX, blogs, and forums influence mathematical practice?
For instance, have LaTeX environments strengthened the tendency to typeset
proof structure more explicitly?
This topical collection aims to bring together and build bridges between
researchers from different methodological backgrounds to tackle questions
concerning the philosophy of mathematics. This includes approaches from
philosophical analysis, linguistics (e.g., corpus studies) and literature
studies, but also methods from computer science and artificial intelligence
(e.g., big data approaches and natural language processing), cognitive
sciences, and mathematics education (relevant studies include Mancosu et al.
2005; Giaquinto 2007; Schlimm 2008; Pease et al. 2013; Fisseni et al. 2019,
Cramer et al. 2021).
Note that this remains a philosophical issue. So while methods are
interdisciplinary, we aim for a philosophical upshot.
The impressive progress in natural language processing on the one side and
automated theorem proving on the other side make it attractive to develop good
models of mathematical texts to make use of state of the art techniques for
better tooling in documenting and developing mathematics. The language of
mathematics as a technical jargon or as a special natural language with a rich
structure is an important test-case for practical and theoretical study of
language, and also has consequences for the philosophy of language and the
philosophy of mathematical practice. In this collection, we target mathematical
text in a broad sense, including written interaction such as blogs, forums,
reviews as well as textbooks and research articles.
Bibliography:
M. Carl, M. Cramer, B. Fisseni, D. Sarikaya and B. Schröder. “How to Frame
Understanding in Mathematics: A Case Study Using Extremal Proofs”. Axiomathes
(2021).
B. Fisseni, B. Schröder, D. Sarikaya and M. Schmitt. “How to frame a
mathematician. Modelling the cognitive background of proofs.” In: S. Centrone,
D. Kant and D. Sarikaya (Eds.): Reflections on the Foundations of Mathematics:
Univalent Foundations, Set Theory and General Thoughts. Berlin: Synthese
Library, Springer (2019), pp. 417-436.
M. Giaquinto: Visual thinking in mathematics. An epistemological study. Oxford:
Oxford University Press (2007).
P. Mancosu, K.F. Jørgensen and S.A. Pedersen (Eds.): Visualization, explanation
and reasoning styles in mathematics. Dordrecht, Norwell, MA: Synthese Library
327, Springer (2005).
A. Pease, M. Guhe and A. Smaill: “Developments in research on mathematical
practice and cognition”, Topics in cognitive science 5(2) (2013), pp. 224–230.
D. Schlimm: “Two Ways of Analogy. Extending the Study of Analogies to
Mathematical Domains”, Philosophy of Science 75(2) (2008), pp. 178–200.
For further information, or if you are unsure whether your paper idea fits the
theme, please contact ideally all of us: bernhard.fisseni@uni-due.de,
kantdebo@gmail.com, Deniz.Sarikaya@uni-hamburg.de, and
bernhard.schroeder@uni-due.de
The deadline for submissions is March 15, 2022
Papers should be submitted via the Synthese’s editorial manager at
https://www.editorialmanager.com/synt/default.aspx . When the system asks you
to “Choose Article Type”, please scroll down in the pull-down menu to choose
this topical collection: "T.C. : Linguistically Informed Philosophy of
Mathematics" When preparing your paper, please read the journal’s ‘Instructions
for authors’ at https://www.springer.com/journal/11229/submission-guidelines
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