HISTORY AND DIDACTICS OF MATHEMATICS: A PROBLEMATIC RELATION. SOME CONSIDERATIONS BASED ON FEDERIGO ENRIQUES’S IDEAS

Abstract

This history of mathematics is a specific and, at the same time, wide field of research with proper methods, journals, congresses and results. However, some questions about its status are without any doubt legitimate. In particular: is the public to whom the work and the publications of the historians of mathematics are addressed, limited to the specialists in this field or is it broader? It often happens that the mathematicians engaged in the active research consider history of mathematics as a sort of curiosity, but nothing really useful for their researches. They are not interested in an inquire on the historical bases of their researches because they are concentrated in discovering new theorems and solving new problems. It difficult to valuate whether and inside which limits this way of thinking is correct. The problem is complex and cannot be dealt with in this context.