Abstract
It may perhaps sound strange if not bizarre to suggest that metaphors and analogies could and should play a role in the practice of mathematics, let alone to claim that they are essential in present-day mathematics. Yet, that will be precisely the claim I will defend in this paper. I do insist that present-day mathematics is the domain of investigation I have in mind. From a historical perspective, and as an example, no one seems to doubt that mathematics one way or another must have arisen out of a specific set of practices, usually referred to as counting and measuring, and that mathematical concepts are metaphorically related to these practices. That view of the matter, however, does not necessarily say anything about the situation today and, indeed, in most cases it does not.
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Van Bendegem, J.P. (2000). Analogy and Metaphor as Essential Tools for the Working Mathematician. In: Hallyn, F. (eds) Metaphor and Analogy in the Sciences. Origins, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9442-4_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9442-4_7
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