3455

Marshall Gordon

philosophy of mathematics education

2019

35

Plato’s formulation that mathematical truth resides in the World of Forms was inspired by Parmenides’ metaphysics and has determined to a most significant extent the presentation format of mathematics up to today. In its pristine finished expression the elegance of mathematics argument is made evident. The problem is the coming into existence of the argument is not. And the absence of heuristic commentary, which would shed light on how the formulation took shape, has made mathematics a most challenging discipline for students, with negative consequences for more than a few. How the problem presents itself and an effort at transformation so that mathematics can be more available to more students is the focus of this paper.