Explanation in mathematical conversations: An empirical investigation

Alison Pease; Andrew Aberdein; Ursula Martin

doi:10.1098/rsta.2018.0159

Explanation in mathematical conversations: An empirical investigation

Alison Pease, Andrew Aberdein, Ursula Martin (Lead / Corresponding author)

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Abstract

Analysis of online mathematics forums can help reveal how explanation is used by mathematicians; we contend that this use of explanation may help to provide an informal conceptualization of simplicity. We extracted six conjectures from recent philosophical work on the occurrence and characteristics of explanation in mathematics. We then tested these conjectures against a corpus derived from online mathematical discussions. To this end, we employed two techniques, one based on indicator terms, the other on a random sample of comments lacking such indicators. Our findings suggest that explanation is widespread in mathematical practice and that it occurs not only in proofs but also in other mathematical contexts. Our work also provides further evidence for the utility of empirical methods in addressing philosophical problems.

Original language	English
Article number	20180159
Journal	Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
Volume	377
Issue number	2140
Early online date	21 Jan 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0159
Publication status	Published - 11 Mar 2019

Keywords

Crowd-sourced mathematics
Experimental philosophy
Explanation
Hilbert problems
Mathematical practice

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Mathematics
General Engineering
General Physics and Astronomy

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10.1098/rsta.2018.0159

Author Accepted Manuscript
Copyright © 2019 The Authors. This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available online from the Royal Society at: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2018.0159
Accepted author manuscript, 555 KB

Cite this

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Explanation in mathematical conversations: An empirical investigation

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Example-Driven Machine-Human Collaboration in Mathematics

Pease, Alison

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Explanation in mathematical conversations: An empirical investigation

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ASJC Scopus subject areas

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Example-Driven Machine-Human Collaboration in Mathematics

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Pease, Alison

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