Science and an African LogicDoes 2 + 2 = 4? Ask almost anyone and they will unequivocally answer yes. A basic equation such as this seems the very definition of certainty, but is it? In this captivating book, Helen Verran addresses precisely that question by looking at how science, mathematics, and logic come to life in Yoruba primary schools. Drawing on her experience as a teacher in Nigeria, Verran describes how she went from the radical conclusion that logic and math are culturally relative, to determining what Westerners find so disconcerting about Yoruba logic, to a new understanding of all generalizing logic. She reveals that in contrast to the one-to-many model found in Western number systems, Yoruba thinking operates by figuring things as wholes and their parts. Quantity is not absolute but always relational. Certainty is derived not from abstract logic, but from cultural practices and associations. A powerful story of how one woman's investigation in this everday situation led to extraordinary conclusions about the nature of numbers, generalization, and certainty, this book will be a signal contribution to philosophy, anthropology of science, and education. |
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abstract objects African Akinyele bilingual bodies Bola boundary Bruno Latour Cambridge certainty chapter collective acting colonial complexity contrast critique Culture embodied emerge English and Yoruba English language English number English speakers entities features of physical figure fingers foundation foundationism foundationist frame going-on Ibadan Ile-Ife implies interpellation John Law knowers language talk Latour learning lesson linguistic literalizing logic Marilyn Strathern material objects material world mathematics microworld mode modern multiple natural number Nigeria notion number names numeration system Obafemi Awolowo University ogún oriki outcome peanuts plurality politics practices predicating predicating-designating qualities quantifying Quine recognize recursion relation relationalities relativist ritual routines Routledge seems singular social sort sortal particulars spatiotemporal particulars stories symbolic telling things tion translation types units unity/plurality universalist University Press verb vigesimal words Yoruba and English Yoruba children Yoruba classrooms Yoruba language Yoruba numeration Yoruba speakers Yoruba-speaking Yoruba-speaking children zero