from Part II - Phylogeny and History
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 March 2024
In Chapter 5, the focus is on the development of arithmetical operations. I review empirical literature and argue that addition has plausibly developed as a direct continuation of counting procedures, which in turn made it possible to develop other arithmetical operations (multiplication, subtraction, and division). After that, reviewing literature on different cultures, I show the importance of arithmetical applications for the development of arithmetic – or the lack of it. While arithmetical operations have developed in similar ways in different cultures (when arithmetic was indeed developed), in the final section I show how some aspects of Western arithmetic – for example, proofs, axiomatisations and infinity – are more culturally specific.
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