Der zählende Mensch

2008 has been declared the International Year of Mathematics. So perhaps it is time for a new groundbreaking look at this basic science.Numbers can be very daunting. To some they are god-like apparitions, an oracle from beyond - to others nothing but illusion and the work of the devil. Even Pythagoras was convinced that everything is but a number. Our modern scientific depiction of the world is based on numbers; humans are both a part of this view of the world and its perpetrator. In this volume André Frank Zimpel studies two interconnected questions: How do humans develop their attitude toward numbers? And can we grasp human intellectual development through numbers?A science of human mathematics that subsumes the accomplishments of engineering mathematics but does not ignore human qualities may better be in the position to sharpen our view for the problems inherent to an information age as well as to contribute to their solution.

Zahlen können einschüchtern. Für manchen sind sie Gottesersatz oder Orakel aus dem Jenseits, für andere Blendwerk und Teufelszeug. Und schon Pythagoras wusste: Alles ist Zahl. André Frank Zimpel untersucht zwei eng miteinander verknüpfte Fragen: Wie entwickeln Menschen ihren Umgang mit Zahlen? Und: Lässt sich die geistige Entwicklung eines Menschen mit Zahlen erfassen?