Not Just the Pretty Stuff: Mathematical Poetry and the Politics of Mathematics
What is mathematical poetry? I cannot extract a clear definition from Gizem Karaali’s paper. At most, one might infer that it is a poetic practice engaging cognition, consciousness, and creativity. Yet the author also suggests that these capacities define the human species. This raises an interesting question: why should an argument even be required for “a more humanistic understanding of mathematics”? What other understanding might one hope for? Mathematics is a creative human activity. Again, what else could it be? Even if one were to hold that mathematics ultimately derives from Platonic forms, from formal symbolic systems, or from computational processes, such positions concern the ontology of mathematics, what mathematics is. They do not eliminate the fact that mathematics is practiced by humans as a social activity. Proofs are written, arguments are debated, conjectures are proposed and refined, and standards of elegance or rigour are negotiated within communities of mathematicia...