Closing of MES-5

Tomorrow is the final day of the MES-5 conference, but the ordinary lectures end today. The plenary lecture today is held by Ole Ravn Christensen of Aalborg University (see his article). In his presentation, he is discussing a connection between the philosophy of mathematics and mathematics education research. His theoretical point of departure, when it comes to the philosophy of mathematics, is Wittgenstein. He presents us with an argument:

(...) that the later Wittgenstein presents us with an unreservedly social interpretation of mathematics that favours a certain direction for our research on mathematics education. According to this interpretation, mathematics could be considered to be constituted exclusively in complex social processes, in which case any conception of it mirroring a pre-existing world of mathematical objects is rejected. To contrast with the Wittgensteinian position, a Platonist position is presented and the two philosophical positions are discussed in relation to their significance for mathematics education (from the abstract).