Where mathematics comes from : how the embodied mind brings mathematics into being

Renowned linguist George Lakoff pairs with psychologist Rafael Nuez in the first book to provide a serious study of the cognitive science of mathematical ideas.. This book is about mathematical ideas, about what mathematics means-and why. Abstract ideas, for the most part, arise via conceptual metaphor-metaphorical ideas projecting from the way we function in the everyday physical world. Where Mathematics Comes From argues that conceptual metaphor plays a central role in mathematical ideas within the cognitive unconscious-from arithmetic and algebra to sets and logic to infinity in all of its forms.