Editing George Lakoff (section)

===Mathematics===
According to Lakoff, even mathematics is subjective to the human species and its cultures: thus "any question of math's being inherent in physical reality is moot, since there is no way to know whether or not it is". By this, he is saying that there is nothing outside of the thought structures we derive from our embodied minds that we can use to "prove" that mathematics is somehow beyond biology. Lakoff and [[Rafael E. Núñez]] (2000) argue at length that [[mathematics|mathematical]] and [[philosophy|philosophical]] ideas are best understood in light of the embodied mind.<ref>
Lakoff & R. Núñez. (2000). ''[[Where Mathematics Comes From]]: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being''. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-03771-2.
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The [[philosophy of mathematics]] ought therefore to look to the current scientific understanding of the human body as a [[foundation ontology]], and should abandon self-referential attempts to ground the operational components of mathematics in anything other than "meat".

Mathematical reviewers have generally been critical of Lakoff and Núñez, pointing to mathematical errors.{{Citation needed|date=November 2014}} Lakoff claims that these errors have been corrected in subsequent printings.{{Citation needed|date=November 2014}} Although Lakoff and Núñez's book attempts a refutation of some of the most widely accepted viewpoints in the philosophy of mathematics and advice for how the field might proceed, its authors have yet to elicit much of a reaction from philosophers of mathematics themselves.{{Citation needed|date=July 2013}} The small community specializing in the psychology of mathematical learning, to which Núñez belongs, is paying attention.<ref>G. Lakoff & R. Núñez. (2000). ''Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being''. New York: Basic Books.</ref>{{page needed|date=February 2025}}

Lakoff has also claimed that we should remain agnostic about whether math is somehow wrapped up with the very nature of the universe. Early in 2001 Lakoff told the [[American Association for the Advancement of Science]] (AAAS): "Mathematics may or may not be out there in the world, but there's no way that we scientifically could possibly tell." This is because the structures of scientific knowledge are not "out there" but rather in our brains, based on the details of our anatomy. Therefore, we cannot "tell" that mathematics is "out there" without relying on conceptual metaphors rooted in our biology. This claim bothers those who believe that there really is a way we could "tell". The falsifiability of this claim is perhaps the central problem in the [[cognitive science of mathematics]], a field that attempts to establish a [[foundation ontology]] based on the human cognitive and scientific process.<ref>
Dehaene, S. (1997) ''The number sense: How the mind creates mathematics''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-513240-8}}</ref>