Mathematics as Discourse: A Commognitive View of Late Nineteenth-Century Algebra

This paper presents an example of how Anna Sfard’s commognitive theory of learning might be applied to gain insights into certain aspects of the history of mathematics. I begin with an overview of select features of commognitive theory and its view of mathematics as a particular type of human discourse. I then draw on works by Cayley and Dedekind to examine what the commognitive lens may reveal about the development of algebraic discourses in the late nineteenth century.