Where Mathematics Comes From
Storefront for Somatic Practice
Cambridge
4.3.17
5-7pm
In Where Mathematics Come From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics Into Being (2000) George Lakoff and Rafael E. Núñez argue that abstract ideas arise through conceptual or metaphorical ones projected by our functioning in the everyday physical world. From arithmetic and algebra to sets and logic to infinity in all of its forms, Lakoff and Núñez locate the basics of mathematics in our sense of the body and the embodied world.
Dr. Elizabeth Wood studied physics and engineering at Harvard and MIT where she currently teaches a course on programming for biologists.
After a reading roundtable of selected passages from Lakoff’s book, Wood will lead an experiment in bringing subconscious metaphors to the fore.