THE EXPERIENCE OF INSIGHT IN GEOMETRY

RESIDENT MEMBERS’ SERIES
Logan Fletcher
Coach House, Green College, UBC
Monday, October 16, 8-9 pm

If you consider the right diagram in the right way, you can come to see why the Pythagorean theorem has to be true. This is not a matter of logical deduction, nor of empirical observation. Rather, you experience something like an internal click of recognition, in relation to objects brought before your mind. This talk explores the experience of insight, both in geometry and beyond.

Logan Fletcher is a postdoctoral fellow in Philosophy, working at the intersection of epistemology and cognitive science. His current research investigates the nature of insight and understanding, taking visuospatial thinking in mathematics as the central case study.