[FOM] 2nd CFP: Symposium on Mathematical Practice and Cognition

[Andrew Aberdein]

Apologies for cross-postings.


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 Núñez (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.

Dr. Andrew Aberdein, Associate Professor of Logic and Humanities,  
Florida Institute of Technology

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 Núñez, 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.