Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VaViM (Virtues and Vice in Mathematics)
Reporting period: 2020-09-01 to 2022-08-31
Mathematical communities are starting to pay more attention to the ethical dimensions of their research activities. They debate issues of social justice in mathematical research practices and point out that mathematics students are ill-prepared for the ethical challenges they will face when working as bankers, writers of computer codes etc. These are socially relevant questions that merit philosophical engagement, but philosophers have thus far largely ignored the ethical dimensions of mathematical knowledge-making. A primary objective of VaViM is to address this lacuna. The project provides detailed case study based arguments that reveal and discuss these ethical dimensions of the production of mathematical knowledge, and proposes concrete interventions to navigate these challenges. The project studies forms of exclusion from mathematical knowledge-making activities. Some forms of exclusion are justified, such as filtering processes that seek to ensure quality of mathematical research. Other forms of exclusion are unjustified, such as the evaluation of mathematical work based on epistemically irrelevant social identifiers (e.g. race, gender, geographic location). VaViM studies both forms of exclusion from mathematical knowledge-making.
This MSCA allowed me to develop agility with many research methodologies and to familiarise myself with various streams of research in philosophy, mathematics education, sociology of mathematics, and discourses about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies for mathematics. The action enabled me to connect with mathematical communities and policy makers, e.g. my joint work with Eugenie Hunsicker, which will shape my future work. The MSCA also established me as a leading scholar in philosophical debates of the ethics of mathematics, as witnessed by invitations to contribute to conferences and a book project.
Further impacts anticipated from this MSCA are increased and improved: awareness of the ethics of mathematics amongst philosophers and the public at large; conceptual clarity in the DEI policy debate in mathematics; understanding of the exclusionary mechanisms of mathematical knowledge-making; and bridges between mathematical and philosophical communities. A final overarching impact is fostering a more humanised conception of mathematics.