Search arXiv⌕ Search
Home/Archive/arXiv

arXiv · 2310.13594

The decolonisation of mathematics

John Armstrong·India Jackman
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

We describe a mainstream "universalist" approach to the understanding of mathematics. We then conduct a systematic (but not exhaustive) review of the academic literature on the decolonisation of mathematics and identify how this challenges the universalist view. We examine evidence of whether the experience of mathematics in the UK is systemically racist, examining both the decolonial arguments and the empirical evidence. We find that there may be some benefit in teaching the history of mathematics, but that this should be weighed against the opportunity cost. We find some prima-facie evidence of discrimination in the descriptive statistics on the representation of ethnic minorities in academic roles in UK higher education.

Explore related subjects

math.HO

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

John Armstrong, India Jackman. 2023-10-20. The decolonisation of mathematics. https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.13594

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related papers

arXiv2026

On the Reconstruction of SAS from Other Triangle Congruence Criteria, Part II: Eliminating the Pons Asinorum

In the first part of this work we showed that, within a Hilbert plane deprived of the Side-Angle-Side axiom, the Side-Angle-Angle criterion, together with a ray correspondence principle [\textbf{RCT}], the existence of angle bisectors [\textbf{AB}], the congruence of supplements of congruent angles [\textbf{SA}], and the Pons Asinorum [\textbf{PA}], suffices to reconstruct SAS. We left open the question of whether [\textbf{PA}] is genuinely required alongside the other three principles, noting only a qualitative asymmetry in the nature of the principles involved. In this second part we answer this question: we show that \begin{equation*} \textrm{SAA},\ [\textbf{RCT}],\ [\textbf{AB}] \;\vdash\; [\textbf{PA}], \end{equation*} so that [\textbf{PA}] is redundant among the hypotheses of our main theorem, which improves to \begin{equation*} \textrm{SAA},\ [\textbf{RCT}],\ [\textbf{AB}],\ [\textbf{SA}] \;\vdash\; \textrm{SAS}. \end{equation*} The proof adapts an argument recently given by Donnelly, who reconstructs SAS from SAA together with an angle addition axiom and the existence of angle bisectors.

math.HO↗
arXiv2026

Descartes' Circle Theorem, Princess Elizabeth, and Spinors

In this article, on Descartes' famous "circle theorem," we first attempt to explain how the philosopher could have arrived at the equation that he presents without demonstration in a letter to Princess Palatine Elizabeth of Bohemia in November 1643 (a previously unpublished proof, to our knowledge). Then we report some stages of the subsequent generalization of this theorem, whose Cliffordian flavor, via the equivalence of a quadratic form and the square of a linear form, still mobilizes mathematicians today. This statement, which, over time, has undergone different extensions, Euclidean and non-Euclidean, has found, {\it in fine}, a spinor formalization. We see there the proof of what we may call, in a Bachelardian style, an "inductive value" of the truth, which extends by successive generalizations. We conclude, more briefly, with the contacts between Elizabeth and Descartes, and the perhaps symbolic meaning of these considerations on "kissing circles," as they are called in Anglo-Saxon countries, in the context of their correspondence on the soul and the body, and the question of passions.

math.HO↗
arXiv2026

Mathematical folklore

We present reflections on an experimental seminar studying the human and cultural roots of modern mathematics.

math.HO↗