On the Epistemological Relevance of Social Power and Justice in Mathematics

Eugenie Hunsicker; Colin Jakob Rittberg

doi:10.1007/s10516-022-09629-z

On the Epistemological Relevance of Social Power and Justice in Mathematics

Eugenie Hunsicker, Colin Jakob Rittberg^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Reasoning and Argumentation

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

In this paper we argue that questions about which mathematical ideas mathematicians are exposed to and choose to pay attention to are epistemologically relevant and entangled with power dynamics and social justice concerns. There is a considerable body of literature that discusses the dissemination and uptake of ideas as social justice issues. We argue that these insights are also relevant for the epistemology of mathematics. We make this visible by a journalistic exploration of relevant cases and embed our insights into the larger question how mathematical ideas are taken up in mathematical practices. We argue that epistemologies of mathematics ought to account for questions of exposure to and choice of attention to mathematical ideas, and remark on the political relevance of such epistemologies.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1147-1168
Number of pages	22
Journal	Axiomathes
Volume	32
Issue number	Suppl 3
Early online date	16 Jul 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s10516-022-09629-z
Publication status	Published - Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We wish to thank our anonymous respondents for their time and insights. We thank Brendan Larvor, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, Martin Markl, and two anonymous referees for helpful discussions and suggestions. This paper is part of a project by the second author that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 883724.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

Funding

We wish to thank our anonymous respondents for their time and insights. We thank Brendan Larvor, Catarina Dutilh Novaes, Martin Markl, and two anonymous referees for helpful discussions and suggestions. This paper is part of a project by the second author that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 883724.

Funders	Funder number
Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions	883724
H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Keywords

Epistemic exclusion
Epistemology
Ethics of mathematics
Mathematics
Social justice
Social power

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1007/s10516-022-09629-z

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title = "On the Epistemological Relevance of Social Power and Justice in Mathematics",

abstract = "In this paper we argue that questions about which mathematical ideas mathematicians are exposed to and choose to pay attention to are epistemologically relevant and entangled with power dynamics and social justice concerns. There is a considerable body of literature that discusses the dissemination and uptake of ideas as social justice issues. We argue that these insights are also relevant for the epistemology of mathematics. We make this visible by a journalistic exploration of relevant cases and embed our insights into the larger question how mathematical ideas are taken up in mathematical practices. We argue that epistemologies of mathematics ought to account for questions of exposure to and choice of attention to mathematical ideas, and remark on the political relevance of such epistemologies.",

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N2 - In this paper we argue that questions about which mathematical ideas mathematicians are exposed to and choose to pay attention to are epistemologically relevant and entangled with power dynamics and social justice concerns. There is a considerable body of literature that discusses the dissemination and uptake of ideas as social justice issues. We argue that these insights are also relevant for the epistemology of mathematics. We make this visible by a journalistic exploration of relevant cases and embed our insights into the larger question how mathematical ideas are taken up in mathematical practices. We argue that epistemologies of mathematics ought to account for questions of exposure to and choice of attention to mathematical ideas, and remark on the political relevance of such epistemologies.

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KW - Social justice

KW - Social power

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On the Epistemological Relevance of Social Power and Justice in Mathematics

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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