[FOM] blind logicians and mathematicians

[Hilbert Levitz]

Pontriagin.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "catarina dutilh" <cdutilhnovaes at yahoo.com>
To: "Foundations of Mathematics" <fom at cs.nyu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 3:52 AM
Subject: [FOM] blind logicians and mathematicians


>
> Dear all,
>
> Here is a somewhat unconventional question: is anyone aware of there being
or having been professional blind logicians or mathematicians? (Of a certain
standing, of course.) I mean literally blind, or severely visually impaired
as the  politically correct term has it.
>
> My motivation for posing this question is the investigation on cognitive
aspects involved in the practices of logic (and mathematics) that I am
currently undertaking. One hypothesis that has come up so far is that logic
(and perhaps mathematics, but to a lesser extent) is essentially a *visual*
enterprise, appealing to our visual cognitive capacities. So the question of
whether there have been or are blind logicians (or mathematicians) is
immediately an important one from this perspective, even though it might
seem awkward in first instance. If there is such a person, it would be
extremely interesting to see whether he or she works in ways that are
fundamentally different from logicians with full use of their visual
abilities; if there isn't such a person, then this fact may seem to give
some support to the hypothesis that logic is essentially a visual
enterprise.
>
> Thanks in advance for your cooperation!
>
> Catarina Dutilh Novaes
>
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