How our emotions and bodies are vital for abstract thought: perfect mathematics for imperfect minds

By:

Sverdlik, Anna

Contributor(s):

Fairweather-Vega, Shelley [Translator]

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Routledge 2018 LondonDescription: xvii, 218 pISBN:

9781138565869

Subject(s):

DDC classification:

510.1 S9H6

Summary: If mathematics is the purest form of knowledge, the perfect foundation of all the hard sciences, and a uniquely precise discipline, then how can the human brain, an imperfect and imprecise organ, process mathematical ideas? Is mathematics made up of eternal, universal truths? Or, as some have claimed, could mathematics simply be a human invention, a kind of tool or metaphor? These questions are among the greatest enigmas of science and epistemology, discussed at length by mathematicians, physicians, and philosophers. But, curiously enough, neuroscientists have been absent in the debate, even though it is precisely the field of neuroscience—which studies the brain’s mechanisms for thinking and reasoning—that ought to be at the very center of these discussions. How our Emotions and Bodies are Vital for Abstract Thought explores the unique mechanisms of cooperation between the body, emotions, and the cortex, based on fundamental physical principles. It is these mechanisms that help us to overcome the limitations of our physiology and allow our imperfect, human brains to make transcendent mathematical discoveries. This book is written for anyone who is interested in the nature of abstract thought, including mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, psychologists, and psychiatrists. https://www.routledge.com/How-Our-Emotions-and-Bodies-are-Vital-for-Abstract-Thought-Perfect-Mathematics/Sverdlik/p/book/9781138565869

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Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Book	Ahmedabad General Stacks	Non-fiction	510.1 S9H6 (Browse shelf(Opens below))	Available		199612

Total holds: 0

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Previous	510.01 H8D4 The divine proportion: a study in mathematical beauty	510.1 C4H6 How to bake PI: an edible exploration of the mathematics of mathematics	510.1 G7T4-I Theorems of the 21st century vol-1	510.1 S9H6 How our emotions and bodies are vital for abstract thought: perfect mathematics for imperfect minds	510.1 W4P7 Principia mathematica to 56	510.223 N3P7 Proofs without words III: further exercises in visual thinking	510.2462 J2A2-2014 Advanced engineering mathematics	Next

Table of Contents

List of Figures
Preface
Chapter 1. The unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics
Chapter 2. Why logic is never ideal
Chapter 3. Working memory and logical limitations
Chapter 4. Overpowered by emotion
Chapter 5. From cognition to recognition and back again
Chapter 6. Non-algorithmic thinking machine?
Chapter 7. How mathematics can outwit physiology
Afterword
Index

https://www.routledge.com/How-Our-Emotions-and-Bodies-are-Vital-for-Abstract-Thought-Perfect-Mathematics/Sverdlik/p/book/9781138565869

If mathematics is the purest form of knowledge, the perfect foundation of all the hard sciences, and a uniquely precise discipline, then how can the human brain, an imperfect and imprecise organ, process mathematical ideas? Is mathematics made up of eternal, universal truths? Or, as some have claimed, could mathematics simply be a human invention, a kind of tool or metaphor? These questions are among the greatest enigmas of science and epistemology, discussed at length by mathematicians, physicians, and philosophers. But, curiously enough, neuroscientists have been absent in the debate, even though it is precisely the field of neuroscience—which studies the brain’s mechanisms for thinking and reasoning—that ought to be at the very center of these discussions. How our Emotions and Bodies are Vital for Abstract Thought explores the unique mechanisms of cooperation between the body, emotions, and the cortex, based on fundamental physical principles. It is these mechanisms that help us to overcome the limitations of our physiology and allow our imperfect, human brains to make transcendent mathematical discoveries. This book is written for anyone who is interested in the nature of abstract thought, including mathematicians, physicists, computer scientists, psychologists, and psychiatrists.

https://www.routledge.com/How-Our-Emotions-and-Bodies-are-Vital-for-Abstract-Thought-Perfect-Mathematics/Sverdlik/p/book/9781138565869

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