At the origins of geometrical knowledge

pp. 1-26

in: Lorenzo Magnani, Philosophy and geometry, Berlin, Springer, 2001

Abstract

The scholars who have analyzed primitive spatial frameworks have immediately emphasized the absence of our usual abstract system of three-dimensional coordinates and projective relations. And therefore, the fact that our spatial frameworks derive above all from Euclidean geometry. According to this point of view, the primitive representations of space were probably more symbolic than geometric, therefore simple and eventually closer to topological intuitive representations.