The philosophical discourse weaving the threads of school mathematics

Abstract

This paper results of studies of texts by Plato, Aristotle and Descartes. Based in concepts
developed by Michel Foucault, it has sought to examine how such philosophical discourses/practices
have built and build, in western culture, meanings and identities around school mathematics knowledge
and the schooled subject, structuring forms of thought about what mathematics is, as well as defining
the borders as to who can and who can not think and act mathematically, thus contributing to the
legitimation of a modern rationality. For such, the philosophical discourse is approached to two
curricular facts: the Movement of Modern Mathematics and the National Curricular Parameters (PCN)
for the area of mathematics.