Corporate Talent Detection and Development

11 Mathematical MO.O.N.: Abstract-general

11.1. Mathematics: specific use of an operating mode

Speaking of the difference between a physicist and a mathematician: “A mathematician also deals with these things, spheres, but not each as the limit of a natural body. Nor does he study their attributes in natural bodies. Nor does he study their attributes as they are attributed to such ‘natural’ beings. This is also why it separates them, for they are separable from movement of thought, it makes no difference and no error is even produced by separating them” (Aristotle, Physics II, 2, 193 b).

“A mathematician is someone who applies, teaches or creates mathematics. It is a science in which one deals with describing, understanding and acting on the world; in which the object of study is abstract, and for which knowledge accumulates through the tool of evidence obtained through deductive reasoning” – Cédric Villani.¹

“In the past, there was Baoxi, who, firstly, drew the eight trigrams to communicate with the abilities of clairvoyance and illumination in order to classify (lei) the situations (qing) of all the existing ones, then created the procedure of the multiplication table so that it was in concordance with the mutations of the six lines (hexagrams)” – Liu Hui, Classic Chinese Mathematics.

Like the linguistic and musical MO.O.N., we will not take the path of what mathematics is or what a mathematician is. Primarily because it would lead us to slide down the explanatory slope ...