The Mathematical Brain

Butterworth, Brian

ISBN 10: 0333735277 / ISBN 13: 9780333735275

Published by Macmillan, 1999

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Synopsis:

The concept of numbers and the ability to recognize and process them is innate, part of everyone's intellectual apparatus whether they've had formal education or not. This "number instinct" is not dependent on basic intelligence or general knowledge, a fact which has implications for neuroscience and poses the question: why did man evolve with such specialized neural apparatus. It has been that the social development of humans has been crucially affected by language, yet numbers have also been critical in the advancement of human culture. Every child goes through a stage of learning to count using their ten fingers, much as early Homo Sapiens must have done. If number learning is a natural and universal function of the brain, why do so many suffer from dyscalculia? This text, containing theories and anecdote, is an investigation into the bizarre world of numbers. It examines the role of education, good or bad, in the development of mathematical disorders.

Review: At first glance, neuropsychologist Brian Butterworth's The Mathematical Brain might infuriate mathsphobes who insist that they just can't get a handle on numbers. Could it be true that natural selection produced brains preprogrammed with multiplication tables? Read a few pages, though, and you'll see that Professor Butterworth has more than a little sympathy for the arithmetically challenged, and indeed confesses that he too has a hard time with figures. His thesis isn't that we are born doing mathematics, but that we are born with a faculty for learning mathematics, much like our ability to learn language. He goes on to argue that unique individual differences in this faculty combine with our educational experiences to make us either lightning calculators or klutzes who can't work out the right tip.

Butterworth's style is perfect for his subject, seamlessly weaving scholarly analysis with down-to-earth humour and practical examples that will satisfy the researcher and the lay reader alike. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, linguistics, and his own neuropsychology, he makes his case like a masterful attorney while remaining careful to leave room for scientific falsification. The history of counting is engrossing and will be new to many readers, as it has been a rather arcane field until recently--but it's just one of the many new vistas opened for the readers of What Counts. -- Rob Lightner, Amazon.com

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Mathematical Brain
Publisher: Macmillan
Publication Date: 1999
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: Used; Very Good