SAL RESTIVO'S BLOG: THE SOCIOLOGICAL COGITO

  By now you have probably read about the decision in Florida to remove “Principles of Sociology” from the state’s general education core course options. We are grateful to our members in Florida and beyond who have been working hard to make the case for the value of sociology. ASA has also been working hard to advocate for our discipline in Florida and in other states facing the prospect of similar decisions. In advance of the final Florida decision, ASA submitted a public comment objecting to the proposal, joining in an effort undertaken by many local sociologists who shared deeply compelling arguments in writing and in person. Once the decision was made, ASA responded with comment to the media, leading to extensivE coverage in outlets including the New York Times , Washington Post , Huff Post , Guardian , Fox News , and Tampa Bay Times . We’ve reached out directly to relevant Florida staff and will continue lobbying members of the Board of Governors of the S...

  HEADLINE: Could quantum physics hold key to unlocking secrets of human behavior? https://studyfinds.org/quantum-physics-human-behavior/ THE ARGUMENT: Human behavior is an enigma that fascinates many scientists. And there has been much discussion over the role of probability in explaining how our minds work. Probability is a mathematical framework designed to tell us how likely an event is to occur – and works well for many everyday situations. For example, it describes the outcome of a coin toss as ½ – or 50% – because throwing either heads or tails is equally probable.[Uh oh: Coin flips don't truly have a 50/50 chance of being heads or tailResearchers who flipped coins 350,757 times have confirmed that the chance of landing the coin the same way up as it started is around 51 per cent. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2397248-coin-flips-dont-truly-have-a-50-50-chance-of-being-heads-or-tails/].   Yet research has it that human behavior can’t be...

  Sal Restivo, (2012), MATHEMATICS, CIVILIZATION, AND PROGRESS, in History of Mathematics , [Eds.UNESCO-EOLSS Joint Commitee], in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), Developed under the Auspices of the UNESCO, Eolss Publishers, Paris, France, [http://www.eolss.net]   MATHEMATICS, CIVILIZATION, AND PROGRESS   Sal Restivo Department of Intercultural Communication and Interaction, University of Ghent, Ghent Belgium   Keywords : abstraction, arithmetic, Chinese mathematics, civilization, ethnomathematics, European mathematics, generalization, geometry, Greek mathematics, Indian mathematics, mathematical workers, mathematicians, mathematics, non-Euclidean geometry, Platonism, proofs, progress, puzzle solving, social constructionism, sociology, transcendental   Contents   1.   Prologue: Interrogating the terms of our discourse 2.   Introduction: mathematics and civil...