Abstract
I begin with a story told by the French mathematician François Le Lionnais (1983) about his first experience, at age seven, of a mathematical discovery. It illustrates, perhaps more immediately than a trip to the Great Museum of ‘elegant’ mathematical proofs, how aesthetic responses, values and experiences can snugly insinuate themselves alongside logical steps and decisions throughout mathematical activity.
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Notes
See Richard Skemp’s (1979) Intelligence, Learning and Action for a more indepth discussion of the role of emotions in problem solving.
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© 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
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Sinclair, N. (2006). The Aesthetic Sensibilities of Mathematicians. In: Sinclair, N., Pimm, D., Higginson, W. (eds) Mathematics and the Aesthetic. CMS Books in Mathematics. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-38145-9_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-38145-9_5
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-0-387-30526-4
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-38145-9
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