Hermeneutics and mathematical activity

✍ Scribed by Tony Brown

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 327 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0013-1954
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00367909

✦ Synopsis

This paper sets out to explore how hermeneutics might offer an approach to describing the nature of developing understanding in mathematical activity. In discussing the relationship between mathematics and mathematical activity it shows how hermeneutical understanding provides an opportunity to avoid positivistic descriptions that draw a hard distinction between the process and content of learning mathematics. Further, it suggests that personal interpretation underlies all mathematical understanding.