In Stanislas Dehaene & Elizabeth Brannon (eds.), Space, Time and Number in the Brain. Oxford University Press (2011)
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Abstract |
Geometry, etymologically the “science of measuring the Earth”, is a mathematical formalization of space. Just as formal concepts of number may be rooted in an evolutionary ancient system for perceiving numerical quantity, the fathers of geometry may have been inspired by their perception of space. Is the spatial content of formal Euclidean geometry universally present in the way humans perceive space, or is Euclidean geometry a mental construction, specific to those who have received appropriate instruction? The spatial content of the formal theories of geometry may depart from spatial perception for two reasons: first, because in geometry, only some of the features of spatial figures are theoretically relevant; and second, because some geometric concepts go beyond any possible perceptual experience. Focusing in turn on these two aspects of geometry, we will present several lines of research on US adults and children from the age of three years, and participants from an Amazonian culture, the Mundurucu. Almost all the aspects of geometry tested proved to be shared between these two cultures. Nevertheless, some aspects involve a process of mental construction where explicit instruction seem to play a role in the US, but that can still take place in the absence of instruction in geometry.
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Keywords | geometry core knowledge mundurucu |
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References found in this work BETA
Recognition-by-Components: A Theory of Human Image Understanding.Irving Biederman - 1987 - Psychological Review 94 (2):115-147.
Core Knowledge of Geometry in an Amazonian Indigene Group.Stanislas Dehaene, Véronique Izard, Pierre Pica & Elizabeth Spelke - 2006 - Science 311 (5759)::381-4.
Beyond Core Knowledge: Natural Geometry.Elizabeth Spelke, Sang Ah Lee & Véronique Izard - 2010 - Cognitive Science 34 (5):863-884.
Flexible Intuitions of Euclidean Geometry in an Amazonian Indigene Group.Pierre Pica, Véronique Izard, Elizabeth Spelke & Stanislas Dehaene - 2011 - Pnas 23.
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Citations of this work BETA
An Empirically Feasible Approach to the Epistemology of Arithmetic.Markus Pantsar - 2014 - Synthese 191 (17):4201-4229.
Categorical Foundations of Mathematics or How to Provide Foundations for Abstract Mathematics.Jean-Pierre Marquis - 2013 - Review of Symbolic Logic 6 (1):51-75.
In Search of $$\Aleph _{0}$$ ℵ 0 : How Infinity Can Be Created.Markus Pantsar - 2015 - Synthese 192 (8):2489-2511.
The Language of Geometry : Fast Comprehension of Geometrical Primitives and Rules in Human Adults and Preschoolers.Pierre Pica & Mariano Sigman & Stanislas Dehaene With Marie Amalric, Liping Wang - 2017 - PLoS Biology 10.
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