The Impact of the Philosophy of Mathematical Practice on the Philosophy of Mathematics

There are always several ways to read a paper on any topic. This paper, for instance, can be read as a two-part text, the fi rst major part dealing with the history of the study of mathematical practice, and the second, somewhat shorter, part with a proposal as to how the “traditional” philosophy of mathematics and the philosophy of mathematical practice can fruitfully interact. Or it can be read in a different way. Anybody who is interested in and who believes that mathematics, through its practices, is also subject to external infl uences, say from the other sciences or from society/culture at large, will probably know the famous quote of Jean Dieudonné: To the person who will explain to me why the social setting of the small German courts of the 18th century wherein Gauss lived forced him inevitably to occupy himself with the construction of a 17-sided regular polygon, well, to him I will give a chocolate medal. (Dieudonné, 1982, p. 23) 2 The conclusion of this paper will show what the appropriate answer to Dieudonné’s question could be, an answer that is inspired by the ideas presented in this paper.