Mathematical Variables as Indigenous Concepts

Author: Wagner, Roy

Source: International Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Volume 23, Number 1, March 2009 , pp. 1-18(18)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

This paper explores the semiotic status of algebraic variables. To do that we build on a structuralist and post-structuralist train of thought going from Mauss and Levi-Strauss to Baudrillard and Derrida. We import these authors' semiotic thinking from the register of indigenous concepts (such as mana), and apply it to the register of algebra via a concrete case study of generating functions. The purpose of this experiment is to provide a philosophical language that can explore the openness of mathematical signs to reinterpretation, and bridge some barriers between philosophy of mathematics and critical approaches to knowledge.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/02698590902843351

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