[FOM] Convincing math-blind people that math is different

[A. Mani]

On Thu, Dec 25, 2014 at 10:29 AM, Timothy Y. Chow <tchow at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> Although I find this to be a convincing demonstration of the qualitative
> difference between mathematical/scientific knowledge and other kinds of
> knowledge, I am not sure that it serves as a demonstration of the
> distinction between mathematical knowledge and scientific knowledge.  We
> are, after all, still in the realm of finite predictions of finite
> experiments with finite results.  If, as I would like to propose, a
> math-blind person lacks the ability to *extrapolate* or *abstract*, then it
> seems to me that we are stymied at this point.

If we try to specify "math blindness" in terms of functional abilities
in reasoning, then we should be looking towards
partials of commonly used rules in logic-mathematical reasoning

In another perspective, the problem of defining "math blindness"
relates to psychology in a very strong way:
"A truly math blind person must have irrational beliefs and be
suffering from related cognitive dissonance"
and "the person's math blindness must be a dictated by cognitive dissonance"
- in this perspective it is about opposition to certain rules of
reasoning by context.

I think that real dialethic people exist to that point that the person
in question may not use mathematical/logical rules of reasoning in a
consistent way.


In the world of computational intelligence, the idea of math blindness
is easier to specify as the whole thing is about math + logic
+statistical reasoning. The point remains valid in spite of the often
controversial nature of theories used in assessing 'learning'. A nice
question would be

What are the useful concepts of "math blindness" in the domains of
computational intelligence?



Thanks and Regards

A. Mani



Prof(Miss) A. Mani
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