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This might be rude but... No shit? Maths is a deductive process, as in, you PRODUCE an answer given the problem. It necessitates 'coming up with' an answer. I

This might be rude but... No shit? Maths is a deductive process, as in, you PRODUCE an answer given the problem. It necessitates 'coming up with' an answer. I think the author is making a fundamental confusion between maths as a class taken in school or uni, and maths as an intellectual discipline. The class is dogmatic and over structured, but that's due to administration pressures, not because mathematics teachers aren't aware of the issue. The discipline, while still adhering to structure, allows for reframing the problem and always has.

JadeNB 4y ago
> I think the author is making a fundamental confusion between maths as a class taken in school or uni, and maths as an intellectual discipline. The class is dogmatic and over structured, but that's due to administration pressures, not because mathematics teachers aren't aware of the issue. The discipline, while still adhering to structure, allows for reframing the problem and always has. I think the author is not making that confusion, but rather trying to help remedy that confusion on the part of a student in a school or university class who hasn't had anyone to spell out this fact (that every mathematician knows—but not every non-mathematician!).