Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Journal | Volume | Article

168349

Representational structures of arithmetical thinking I

Wojciech Krysztofiak

pp. 1-40

Abstract

In this paper, representational structures of arithmetical thinking, encoded in human minds, are described. On the basis of empirical research, it is possible to distinguish four types of mental number lines: the shortest mental number line, summation mental number lines, point-place mental number lines and mental lines of exact numbers. These structures may be treated as generative mechanisms of forming arithmetical representations underlying our numerical acts of reference towards cardinalities, ordinals and magnitudes. In the paper, the theoretical framework for a formal model of mental arithmetical representations is constructed. Many competitive conceptions of the mental system responsible for our arithmetical thinking may be unified within the presented framework. The paradigm underlying our research may be interpreted philosophically as a neo-Kantian approach to modeling the mind's representational structures.

Publication details

Published in:

(2016) Axiomathes 26 (1).

Pages: 1-40

Full citation:

Krysztofiak Wojciech (2016) „Representational structures of arithmetical thinking I“. Axiomathes 26 (1), 1–40.