INFINITY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ACCESS KEY TO PHILOSOPHICAL EDUCATION THROUGH MATHEMATICS

In some previous contributions of mine written for Scientia Educologica's journals (Bussotti 2012; Bussotti, 2013; Bussotti, 2014) I dealt with the possible use of history of mathematics and science inside mathematics and science education. There is an abundant literature on this subject and I only tried to offer some ideas on possible educative itineraries in which history of mathematics and science could play a role. I had no claim to supply elements for a general theory on the relations history of mathematics-mathematics education and history of science-science education. In this editorial, I would like to deal with a possible interdisciplinary link between philosophical education and mathematics. This link is given by the infinity. The following considerations are valid for all those countries in which some high schools exist where philosophy is taught and, in general, for every course at a philosophical faculty in which the problem of the infinity is faced. Furthermore, they can also be useful in the teaching of mathematics at the high school when the concepts of infinity and infinitesimal (typically while dealing with calculus) are introduced.