Mathematical objectivity and relativism in Mathematics Education

Abstract

This paper aims to discuss relativism in Mathematics Education and its consequences for learning, especially when the objectivity of Mathematics is put in suspicion, considering the production of knowledge relative to each culture, society and individual. To do so, from a theoretical essay, we analyze the relation between relativism, science and Mathematical Education. Reflecting on the formation of subjects capable of understanding reality in an increasingly elaborate way, we point the school Mathematics as a socializing instance of systematized knowledge. Our analysis seeks to show that objectivity has always been present in the construction of science and in this sense we highlight the objectivity of mathematics in the philosophy of language, clarifying how it is intertwined with language, allowing an objective knowledge of the world, contributing, in our view, for the debate on the valorization of school knowledge, in particular the mathematical one, so important for the development of any society.

Keywords

• mathematics education
• objectivity
• relativism