Numbers, Infinity, and Reality: An Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Philosophy of Mathematics Course

This article presents a model of an undergraduate course that brings together advanced topics in the philosophy, history, and sociology of mathematics. The aim is to showcase and encourage opportunities for fruitful collaboration between mathematics instruction and humanities curricula.

We begin with an overview of the course’s context and background, before describing its overall design. We then share three example topics based on readings from Paul Benacerraf (b. 1931), Marvin Jay Greenberg (1935–2017), and Amir Alexander (b. 1963), respectively.  Details of four specific assignments and assessments used in two different versions of the course are provided next. We close with some reflections on the course, from both our perspective as instructors and that of our students.

Figure 1. Benacerraf’s classic 1965 paper is a key text for the course. JSTOR.