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The author's argument immediately fails at the fact that math papers are written in natural language and you'll have no chance of understanding the paper if you
by chmod775 7y ago
The author's argument immediately fails at the fact that math papers are written in natural language and you'll have no chance of understanding the paper if you don't speak that language.
Just because I can read a math paper written in English or German I don't harbor any illusions I'll be able to understand one written in Mandarin.
On top of that there's that mathematical notation really isn't as standardized as one would hope.
Neither is basic terminology (which already isn't consistent between different disciplines/schools within the same language).
So unless a Chinese mathematician deigns to translate the paper into a language I understand, I'll just be screwed.
The underlying concepts may be universal, but the language and notation of mathematics today just isn't.
Edit: For those who want to have a taste of what mathematics in a foreign language is like, have a look at this Chinese Wikipedia article on a very basic topic: https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BF%9E%E7%BB%AD%E5%87%BD%E6%95%B0 https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%BF%9E%E7%BB%AD%E5%87%BD%E6...