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According to Devlin, there are two mental abilities that on the face of the earth are unique to humans: mathematics and language. And he wants to convince us that the ability to do mathematics is based on our facility for language. In fact, what he claims in this book is that the feature of our brain that enables us to use language is the same feature that makes it possible for us to do mathematics. Mathematical thought would be simply a somewhat specialized form of off-line thinking.
Calling this book The Math Gene, Devlin is simply adopting a common metaphor, by that he means "an innate facility for mathematical thought". He says it's a facility genetically determined (at least in part), but talk of a single "gene" for mathematics is purely metaphorical.
Devlin hopes to give us some idea of what he discovered in mathematics and why he fell in love with it, but that is not his main aim in this book. Rather, he wants to solve an intriguing puzzle: how did our ancestors acquire a mind for mathematics? And by answering this question, we may begin to understand why so many people find maths so hard. He shall be able to answer to:
- Can we use language to help us be better at math? (Yes.)
- Do mathematicians think in language? (No.)
- What does it feel like to a mathematician to do mathematics?
- Do mathematicians have different brains? (No.)
Devlin defines mathematics like the science of patterns (the phrase is not his, the earliest written source he found is by W.W. Sawyer in 1955), though he tries to explain what mathematicians mean by "patterns". In fact, numerical computations (basic arithmetic) almost never arise in modern mathematics, which is about abstract patterns, abstract structures and abstract relationships. Besides, he claims that the human mind is a pattern recognizer, and that human memory works by association, one thought leading to another.
There is one chapter devoted to a classical discussion: mathematics, invention or discovery. I like it when he says «in my own experience, doing mathematics certainly feels like discovery [...] my sense is that the solution or the proof is "out there" waiting for me to find it».
There are too several chapters dedicated to deepening in language, its structures and evolution. And others going into antropology, offering a picture of human evolution.
And yes, as the subtitle reads, Devlin compares in this book mathematics with gossiping and sopa operas, as a metaphor to explain how mathematicians work and how everyone could succeed in this subject.
Calling this book The Math Gene, Devlin is simply adopting a common metaphor, by that he means "an innate facility for mathematical thought". He says it's a facility genetically determined (at least in part), but talk of a single "gene" for mathematics is purely metaphorical.
Devlin hopes to give us some idea of what he discovered in mathematics and why he fell in love with it, but that is not his main aim in this book. Rather, he wants to solve an intriguing puzzle: how did our ancestors acquire a mind for mathematics? And by answering this question, we may begin to understand why so many people find maths so hard. He shall be able to answer to:
- Can we use language to help us be better at math? (Yes.)
- Do mathematicians think in language? (No.)
- What does it feel like to a mathematician to do mathematics?
- Do mathematicians have different brains? (No.)
Devlin defines mathematics like the science of patterns (the phrase is not his, the earliest written source he found is by W.W. Sawyer in 1955), though he tries to explain what mathematicians mean by "patterns". In fact, numerical computations (basic arithmetic) almost never arise in modern mathematics, which is about abstract patterns, abstract structures and abstract relationships. Besides, he claims that the human mind is a pattern recognizer, and that human memory works by association, one thought leading to another.
There is one chapter devoted to a classical discussion: mathematics, invention or discovery. I like it when he says «in my own experience, doing mathematics certainly feels like discovery [...] my sense is that the solution or the proof is "out there" waiting for me to find it».
There are too several chapters dedicated to deepening in language, its structures and evolution. And others going into antropology, offering a picture of human evolution.
And yes, as the subtitle reads, Devlin compares in this book mathematics with gossiping and sopa operas, as a metaphor to explain how mathematicians work and how everyone could succeed in this subject.