Biopsychologiczne podstawy poznania geometrycznego

Abstract

In this review-paper, I focus on biopsychological foundations of geometric cognition. Starting from the Kant’s views on mathematics, I attempt to show that contemporary cognitive scientists, alike the famous philosopher, recognize mutual relationships of visuospatial processing and geometric cognition. What I defend is a claim that Tinbergen’s explanatory questions are the most fruitful tool for explaining our “hardwired,” and thus shared with other animals, Euclidean intuitions, which manifest themselves in spatial navigation and shape recognition. I claim, however, that these “hardwired intuitions” cannot capture full-blooded Euclidean geometry, which demands practice with cultural artifacts in various time-scales.

Keywords

• cognitive science of mathematics
• cognitive maps
• cultural artifacts
• core cognitive systems
• geometric cognition
• scientific explanation