The Math Gene : How Mathematical Thinking Evolved And Why Numbers Are Like Gossip

Why is math so hard? And why, despite this difficulty, are some people so good at it? If thereʹs some inborn capacity for mathematical thinking -- which there must be, otherwise no one could do it -- why canʹt we all do it well? Keith Devlin has answers to all these difficult questions, and in giving them shows us how mathematical ability evolved, why itʹs a part of language ability, and how we can make better use of this innate talent. He also offers a breathtakingly new theory of language development -- that language evolved in two stages, and its main purpose was not communication -- to show that the ability to think mathematically arose out of the same symbol-manipulating ability that was so crucial to the emergence of true language. Why, then, canʹt we do math as well as we can speak? The answer, says Devlin, is that we can and do -- we just donʹt recognize when weʹre using mathematical reasoning. -- Publisher description

A groundbreaking book about math and language, from the well-known NPR commentator Keith Devlin.

Publishers Weekly

Recently, luminaries like Steven Pinker have shown lay audiences neat theories about how language works and how our language instinct evolved. In the same years, writers like David Berlinski have made higher math entertaining and accessible. Here, prolific math writer and NPR commentator Devlin (The Language of Mathematics) has joined these two strands of popular science writing. Using up-to-date cognitive psychology, along with the history of math, Devlin aims to unfold our innate sense of number and to show what it has to do with language. He also hopes, more ambitiously, to win readers over to his own hypothesis about how our language and math instincts arose. Experiments show that chimps, like us, use symbols to denote numbers, though human toddlers are far better at it. Combining a number sense with symbolic abilities, we use abstractions to manipulate quantities, leading to arithmetic and potentially to calculus and number theory. After several stellar chapters devoted largely to psychology experiments, Devlin switches gears to higher math, giving examples of how abstract models describe concrete things--from rotating clock faces to rattlesnake skins. The book takes another sharp turn, into the stimulating but quite crowded field of hypotheses about how our brains came to be. While responsibly laying out several hypotheses, Devlin favors the idea that enhanced symbolic abilities let early hominids think off-line, asking and answering what if questions about tools, predators, habitats or prey. Some may wish Devlin had written two books--one about math and language, the other about language and evolution; the former would likely ace the latter. Most readers, though, will appreciate the broad, accessible syntheses he does provide. 35 illus. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

If people are endowed with a "number instinct" similar to the "language instinct" -- as recent research suggests -- then why can't everyone do math? In The Math Gene , mathematician and popular writer Keith Devlin attacks both sides of this question. Devlin offers a breathtakingly new theory of language development that describes how language evolved in two stages and how its main purpose was not communication. Devlin goes on to show that the ability to think mathematically arose out of the same symbol-manipulating ability that was so crucial to the very first emergence of true language. Why, then, can't we do math as well as we speak? The answer, says Devlin, is that we can and do -- we just don't recognize when we're using mathematical reasoning. "In The Math Gene, mathematician Keith Devlin offers a breathtakingly new theory of language development that describes how language evolved in two stages and how its main purpose was not communication. He goes on to show that the ability to think mathematically arose out of the same symbol-manipulating ability that was so crucial to the very first emergence of true language.". "The Math Gene explains how our innate pattern-making abilities allow us to perform mathematical reasoning. Revealing why some people loathe mathematics, others find it difficult and a select few excel at the subject, Keith Devlin suggests ways in which we can all improve our mathematical skills."--BOOK JACKET. The author of The Language of Mathematics: Making the Invisible Visible introduces a new theory of language development to explain why some people learn to do math while others do not. Reprint. 30,000 first printing.