Comment by skyyler
6 days ago
> what does this have to with nonsensical subjects being taught in universities
Since we’re bringing it back onto topic, has any university ever ran a “decolonised maths” program? What would that look like?
6 days ago
> what does this have to with nonsensical subjects being taught in universities
Since we’re bringing it back onto topic, has any university ever ran a “decolonised maths” program? What would that look like?
I'm not sure. They did supposedly organized "Decolonization in Mathematics" conference. I have no particular interest in figuring out what that means exactly on a non superficial level because it would be a waste of time.
I googled the term you put in quotes and found a lovely article in Nature that seems to indicate that it's mostly about correcting common lies in Mathematics history.
Seems relatively straightforward to me...
Things like:
"" Fibonacci's sequence (i.e. 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, ...) was discovered in Africa long before the Italian wrote it down, in the form of Ghanaian textile cloth and Egyptian temple design. (1) "" or: "" It is long believed calculus was discovered by Leibniz and Newton, however there is evidence of Indians having discovered the subject 300 years earlier in the Kerala School. (2) ""
Fun trivia I guess. Also inconsequential if Fibonacci, Leibniz, Newton made their discoveries independently since further developments were based on their work.
It's like saying that Ancient Greeks and not Newcomen or Watt "invented" the steam engine... Again, interesting piece of historical trivia but hardly has much to do with physics as a science.
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