Rafael Núñez | Where do Numbers Come From? | Numerous Numerosity 2021
Plenary session kindly contributed by Rafael Núñez in SEMF’s 2021 Numerous Numerosity
https://semf.org.es/numerosity
SESSION ABSTRACT
What is the origin of numbers? Some mathematicians have pointed to formal definitions and axiomatic systems, other scholars have claimed that some numbers are God-given. Ultimately, these accounts do not provide answers that are consistent with what we know today about the natural world (which includes the human brain and mind). In the natural sciences, a widely accepted view in cognitive neuroscience, child psychology, and animal cognition posits that in humans (and many nonhuman animals) there is a biologically endowed capacity specific for number and arithmetic. However, data from various sources —humans from non-industrialized cultures, trained nonhuman animals in captivity, and the neuroscience of symbol processing in schooled participants— do not support this view. The use of loose and misleading technical terminology in the field of “numerical cognition” has facilitated the elaboration of teleological arguments which underlie the above view. To understand this, a crucial distinction between quantical and numerical cognition is necessary: Biologically evolved preconditions (BEPs) for quantification do exist (quantical cognition), but the emergence of exact symbolic quantification and arithmetic proper (numerical cognition) – absent in nonhuman animals – has materialized via human cultural preoccupations and practices that, supported by language and symbolic reference, are crucial dimensions that lie largely outside natural selection. In this talk I’ll discuss the biological enculturation hypothesis, which attempts to explain the complex passage from quantical to numerical cognition in (some) humans, and in the process, gain insight into where numbers come from.
SESSION MATERIALS
· Is There Really an Evolved Capacity for Number? (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2017.03.005)
· Biological Enculturation Beyond Natural Selection (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2017.03.013)
RAFAEL NÚÑEZ
Department of Cognitive Science (UC San Diego): https://cogsci.ucsd.edu/
Department of Cognitive Science profile: https://cogsci.ucsd.edu/~nunez/web/
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Rafael-Nunez-2
SEMF NETWORKS
Website: https://semf.org.es
Twitter: https://twitter.com/semf_nexus
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/semf-nexus
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/semf.nexus
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/semf.nexus
by SEMF
linux foundation
