The department is pleased to welcome our next colloquium speaker, Brian Katz, from Augustana College.
Title: How do Mathematicians Believe?
Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Location: SCP 229
Abstract: Love it or hate it, many people believe that mathematics gives humans access to a kind of truth that is more absolute and universal than other disciplines. If this claim is true, we must ask: what makes the origins and processes of mathematics special and how can our messy, biological brains connect to the absolute? If the claim is false, then what becomes of truth in mathematics? In this session, we will discuss beliefs about truth and how they play out in the mathematics classroom, trying to understand this thing we call mathematics in higher education.