The Salon: Brian Katz on Culture-Free Knowledge

The Salon is a weekly gathering of students, faculty, staff, and administrators from across campus each Thursday in the Brew from 11:30am - 12:20pm.  It is a time and place for discussion of interdisciplinary ideas and shared experiences; everyone is welcome to participate!

The theme for this term: What are the limits of what we can know?

Brian Katz or BK (Mathematics) will lead this week's discussion on culture-free knowledge: How do the boundaries of knowledge relate to our cultural assumptions? And what are the consequences and limits of hoping for abstract knowledge?   

"Mathematics claims to offer universal, context-independent knowledge, and yet it was created by people. The universality of mathematics is often taken for granted uncritically, but this assumption creates a host of important problems with how we view mathematical knowledge and also within the groups of people expressing their humanity through that mathematics. I cannot provide complete answers to these issues, but silence on the topic is a choice I cannot make."