This is a great article challenging what Lakoff and Nuñez call the "standard folk theory of what mathematics is for our culture," specifically, the idea "of mathematics as authorless, as an eternal absolute." In fact, argues Alayne Armstrong, the development of mathematics is "a process, an evolving aspect of culture." It's something we create, not discover. That's why the embedding of this discussion in a work of fiction (warning: there's a spoiler in the first line of the article) works so well. "Framing doing mathematics as storytelling would help to privilege the process of doing mathematics over the product that results from it (the answer), something that might make school mathematics more satisfying, more human, for our students." Yeah. Related: Byrne's Euclid.
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