29-30 March 2010
Leicester, U.K.
Symposium on Mathematical Practice and Cognition 29th - 30th March, 2010, De Montfort University, Leicester Held on the first and second days of AISB 2010. http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/apease/aisb10/home.html The belief that what mathematicians think and do is important to the philosophy of mathematics is a relatively recent position, held by, for example, Lakatos (1976, 1978), Davis and Hersh (1980), Kitcher (1983), Tymoczko (1986) and Corfield (2003), and discussed in symposia such as Two Streams in the Philosophy of Mathematics: Rival Conceptions of Mathematical Proof (University of Hertfordshire, 2009). This focus on mathematical practice suggests that research into how mathematical definitions or axioms are motivated, representations changed, problems discovered and explained, analogies formed between different mathematical fields, etc., and how these processes grow out of biologically important competences in dealing effectively with rich and complex environments, is relevant and necessary. This contrasts the traditional focus in philosophy on how mathematics should be done, or the epistemological status of mathematical theorems. The new direction is complemented by recent work in cognitive science on the origin and development of mathematical ideas, for example Lakoff and Nez (2000). Researchers are now working at all levels to investigate how people, from young babies up to professionals and geniuses are able to perform different mathematical tasks. With the new approach in the philosophy of mathematics, and developments in cognitive science of mathematics and embodied cognition, we feel that the time is ripe for interaction between the fields. We hope to promote a sharing of ideas and enable an atmosphere in which new connections and collaborations are forged. We aim to bring together researchers in different fields, to promote discussion between, for example, people working on the neurological level and those building models of mathematical theory formation, people thinking about aesthetics in mathematics and those focused on visual and diagrammatic reasoning, psychologists of mathematics education, sociologists of mathematics and researchers in embodied cognition, or studying relevant aspects of animal cognition, and biological evolution. We welcome submissions from anyone interested in themes such as those below, and especially encourage interdisciplinary submissions which link previously unassociated fields. - embodied cognition and mathematics - computational models of axiom, entity, counterexample, concept, conjecture, and proof generation and evaluation in mathematics - visual and diagrammatic reasoning - analogies and metaphors in mathematics - mathematics on the neurological level - philosophy of mathematics/informal mathematics - sociology of mathematics - anthropology of mathematics - mathematics and language - cognitive science of mathematics - psychology of mathematics - psychology of mathematics education - a mathematician's perspective - difficulties in the mathematical brain - studies of dyscalculia, acalculia etc. - how mathematical competences relate to abilities to deal creatively with complex spatial environments - implications for developmental robotics - implications for biological studies of epigenesis - why (and how) did biological evolution produce mathematicians? - if humans require mathematics teachers to help them become mathematicians, where did the first teachers come from? We welcome full papers and short papers, where a full paper comprises a completed piece of work and a short paper describes ongoing work. Full papers should be between six and eight pages in length and short papers two pages. Accepted papers will be published in the AISB 2010 proceedings. We are very pleased to announce our invited speakers: Dr. Brendan Larvor, Principal Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Hertfordshire. Professor Ivor Grattan-Guinness, Emeritus Professor of the History of Mathematics and Logic at Middlesex University, and a Visiting Research Associate at the London School of Economics. Professor Alexandre Borovik, School of Mathematics, University of Manchester. Key dates: Submission - 20th December, 2009 Notification - 26th January, 2010 Camera-ready version - 26th February, 2010 Symposium - 29th - 30th March, 2010 Programme Committee: Andrew Aberdein, Florida Institute of Technology Brian Butterworth, University College London John Charnley, Imperial College London Simon Colton, Imperial College London David Corfield, University of Kent Martin Fischer, University of Dundee Markus Guhe, University of Edinburgh Brendan Larvor, University of Hertfordshire Rafael Nez, University of California, San Diego Alison Pease, University of Edinburgh Aaron Sloman, University of Birmingham Alan Smaill, University of Edinburgh Pedro Torres, Imperial College London Chairs: Alan Smaill, School of Informatics University of Edinburgh Markus Guhe, School of Informatics University of Edinburgh Alison Pease, School of Informatics University of Edinburgh Symposium details available at: http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/apease/aisb10/home.html AISB website: http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb10/Welcome.html We would very much appreciate it if you could forward this email to other interested parties.