Math Blog Post

Math, is a very interesting area of knowledge. It is rather distinct from all the other AOKs, in that it is almost codified logic, and is an absolute, with little to no room for debate in it. Even the natural sciences, subjects whose theories we in society regard as fact most of the time and are perhaps the closest AOK to mathematics, still have debate and conflict over what is true about our world, despite their rigorous testing of the scientific theories involved, and the utilisation of inductive and deductive reasoning. To put it simply, while in physics, there may be debate over ‘how will the universe end’, for instance, in math, no one disputes that 2+2 = 4, for instance. It is as if math is ‘raw’, ‘pure’, logic, the Platonist view suggests that Math is something that fundamentally exists in our world, rather than being a human construction. With science as well, there is an observable change in our thinking, the theories we have, and so on. We know that disease isn’t caused by ‘bad air’ or that the planets orbit the Sun, rather orbiting Earth, as was believed until the renaissance period. However, with math, we have ancient figures, like Pythagoras, who you’d know from math class for his famous Pythagoras theorem, or Eratosthenes, who calculated the circumference of the Earth within 10% of its actual circumference, without even leaving Egypt, where he lived. In real-life, outside the so-called ‘TOK-world’, if you will, math is used in so many diverse situations. Outside of academia, math is not done for the sake of doing math, but rather to aid in other areas of knowledge, such as economics and finance, physics, even art – renaissance art for instance employs mathematics, specifically geometry, in order to have realistic perspectives and proportions in its art. As an area of knowledge, in real life, math is used in conjunction with other areas of knowledge to perhaps the largest extent out of the others. To illustrate this effectively, look at the image below:

These are the major areas of knowledge, and practically all of them could be said to use math. Some people have even attempted to use math as proof of the existence of a higher power, for instance (thus religious knowledge, perhaps). The majority of the time, as said earlier, math is used as a tool for these subjects, either to create models or prove theories or to exercise concepts in the subject. Math by itself does not really factor in to our lives. It is only when used by another AOK, for the reasons described that it becomes truly relevant, but it never forms the main part of a concept, mainly acting as the base of it. Think of a building, while math may be the foundation of it, and the building is dependent on it, the foundation wouldn’t be used without a building to make. It is perhaps a weird metaphor, but think about how math is used when reading it. Math truly is a unique AOK.