Analogy, concepts and methodology, in mathematics ∗

Abstract

Motivation for this article is a question put to Ronnie Brown in June 2004 by a young woman, Bree, at a party while he was visiting the Center for Computational Biology in Bozeman, Montana, to give seminars. Bree said that she was studying maths and ‘found proofs neat’. Also she had asked a lecturer why she should study mathematics, and he had said: ‘Becaus