workshop in Seville, march 2026 - Lost in transition: topics forgotten in the turn to modern mathematics

[Mathematics Education Researchers (MER) community]

FWD message: María de Paz

We invite contributions to the following workshop, to be held in Seville, 5-6 march 2026.

Please send your proposals to Pablo Caballero <pcaba...@us.es> , including title of the paper, abstract (max. 300 words), and contact information for all authors. Deadline is Nov. 10.

Lost in Transition:

Topics forgotten in the turn to modern mathematics

Our image of mathematics, when it is more sophisticated than the old notion of a “science of quantities”, tends to be of a highly abstract theory of structures. This contrasts strongly with the ‘classical’ conception of this science, e.g. in the 18th century – just consider, for an example, that mechanics was a central area of mathematics, back then. More generally, we can say that in the turn to modern mathematics (roughly started around 1850) several important topics have been forgotten. Mention of mechanics should make us think, quite immediately, of the dynamic conception of algebraic and analytic questions, or perhaps of the relations between time and pure mathematics.

The questions we are raising can be understood from a historical viewpoint, but also from a systematic one. For example, when one considers human cognitive grasp of mathematical ideas, time can be as important as space – indeed, space, time and number seem to be intertwined (Marghetis & Nuñez 2013, Dehaene & Brannon 2011). This raises all kinds of questions from a philosophical perspective too.

Invited speakers: Paola Cantù (CNRS, Université Aix-Marseille), Helmut Pulte (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), Matthias Schemmel (Universität Hamburg).

This two-day workshop will be devoted to exploring such forgotten topics, from either a historical or philosophical perspective (or a combination of both).

Venue: IMUS (Mathematics Institute, Univ. of Seville). Details about inscription fees will be provided soon.


--- José Ferreirós
Universidad de Sevilla