Definitions HQ

Mathematics (n.) does ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠not explain nature; ever since Galileo and Newton it has described a process.

Mathematics (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠tied to power — in how it is taught and how mathematicians reach consensus — without that invalidating it in the least.

Mathematics (n.) tells ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠its own history by turning its past into special cases: Diophantus's algebra a particular case of Abel's and Galois's, the Greek method of exhaustion a naive model of integral calculus.

Mathematics (n.) has ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠a preface only its author could have written, and theorems whose subject is an absolutely neutral position — indifferent to time, place, and circumstance — that anyone may occupy.

Mathematics (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the only discourse to cross every threshold at once — formalized from its first gesture — which is why its birth is so enigmatic, and why it is a bad example for the historian of every other science.