Mathematical Variables as Indigenous Concepts

International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 23 (1):1-18 (2009)
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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 L vi-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

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Citations of this work

Mathematical consensus: a research program.Roy Wagner - 2022 - Axiomathes 32 (3):1185-1204.
The natures of numbers in and around Bombelli’s L’algebra.Roy Wagner - 2010 - Archive for History of Exact Sciences 64 (5):485-523.
Cognitive stories and the image of mathematics.Wagner Roy - 2018 - Theoria : An International Journal for Theory, History and Fundations of Science 33 (2):305-323.

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References found in this work

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On the name.Jacques Derrida - 1995 - Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press. Edited by Thomas Dutoit & Jacques Derrida.

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