The forgotten individual

Diagrammatic reasoning in mathematics

Sun-Joo Shin

pp. 149-168

in: John Mumma, Marco Panza, Paul-Gabriel Sandu (eds), Diagrams in mathematics, Synthese 186 (1), 2012.

Abstract

Parallelism has been drawn between modes of representation and problem-sloving processes: Diagrams are more useful for brainstorming while symbolic representation is more welcomed in a formal proof. The paper gets to the root of this clear-cut dualistic picture and argues that the strength of diagrammatic reasoning in the brainstorming process does not have to be abandoned at the stage of proof, but instead should be appreciated and could be preserved in mathematical proofs.