Manufacturing a mathematical group: a study in heuristics

I examine the way a relevant conceptual novelty in mathematics, that is, the notion of group, has been constructed in order to show the kinds of heuristic reasoning that enabled its manufacturing. To this end, I examine salient aspects of the works of Lagrange, Cauchy, Galois and Cayley (Sect. 2). In more detail, I examine the seminal idea resulting from Lagrange’s heuristics and how Cauchy, Galois and Cayley develop it. This analysis shows us how new mathematical entities are generated, and also how what counts as a solution to a problem is shaped and changed. Finally, I argue that this case study shows us that we have to study inferential micro-structures (Sect. 3), that is, the ways similarities and regularities are sought, in order to understand how theoretical novelty is constructed and heuristic reasoning is put forwar

The history of the concept of function and some educational implications

Several fields of mathematics deal directly or indirectly with functions: mathematical analysis considers functions of one, two, or n variables, studying their properties as well as those of their derivatives; the theories of differential and integral equations aim at solving equations in which the unknowns are functions; functional analysis works with spaces made up of functions; and numerical analysis studies the processes of controlling the errors in the evaluation of all different kinds of functions. Other fields of mathematics deal with concepts that constitute generalizations or outgrowths of the notion of function; for example, algebra considers operations and relations, and mathematical logic studies recursive functions. It has long been argued that functions should constitute a fundamental concept in secondary school mathematics (Klein, 1908/1945) and the most recent curriculum orientations clearly emphasize the importance of functions (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989). Depending on the dominant mathematical viewpoint, the notion of function can be regarded in a number of different ways, each with different educational implications. This paper reviews some of the more salient aspects of the history of the concept of function,1 looks at its relationship with other sciences, and discusses its use in the study of real world situations. Finally, the problem of a didactical approach is considered, giving special attention to the nature of the working concept underlying the activities of students and the role of different forms of representation

An Ontology for Grounding Vague Geographic Terms

Many geographic terms, such as “river” and “lake”, are vague, with no clear boundaries of application. In particular, the spatial extent of such features is often vaguely carved out of a continuously varying observable domain. We present a means of defining vague terms using standpoint semantics, a refinement of the philosophical idea of supervaluation semantics. Such definitions can be grounded in actual data by geometric analysis and segmentation of the data set. The issues raised by this process with regard to the nature of boundaries and domains of logical quantification are discussed. We describe a prototype implementation of a system capable of segmenting attributed polygon data into geographically significant regions and evaluating queries involving vague geographic feature terms