Paul Ernest, University of Exeter, United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

The epistemic subject in mathematical activity reads and writes signs, both as a learner and later (for a few) as a mathematician. Rotman’s Semiotics of Mathematics offers a model of the mathematical subject elements of which can fruitfully be applied to the career trajectory of the student and apprentice mathematician (although some aspects of the model are problematic). This diachronic analysis allows a consideration of how the mathematical subject develops powers in the cultural space of mathematical signs.