mathematics for human flourishing

Mathematics for Human Flourishing is a course I developed for Ursinus College’s core capstone requirement. A core capstone asks students to reflect on how their thinking and values have or have not changed over their time in college.

The course takes its name and its central text from Francis Su’s book of the same title. Su’s core claim is that doing mathematics cultivates virtue; not just “problem-solving skills,” but things like play, beauty, freedom, justice, and community. These virtues extend far beyond the discipline of mathematics itself. Alongside Su, students read Tim Harford’s The Data Detective, Paul Lockhart’s A Mathematician’s Lament, Edwin Abbott’s Flatland, selections from Aristotle, Poincaré, and others, and Living Proof: Stories of Resilience Along the Mathematical Journey.

Each class begins with a “problem of the day.” Here the purpose is not to produce a correct answer, but to give students, including those who have long considered themselves “not a math person,” a chance to experience play, frustration, and discovery firsthand. Later in the semester, students choose several of these problems and reflect on which virtues they exercised working through them.

The response has consistently surprised me. Non-math majors have told me they’d never considered mathematics as anything other than instrumental, and have come away describing it as something closer to a humane, even spiritual, practice. Students have written about doing the problem of the day with roommates, teammates, or family, and having used math, unexpectedly, to build community.

I regularly hear from people outside Ursinus curious about the course asking about things like how it’s structured, what we read, whether it could work elsewhere. I’m always happy to talk about it: reach out any time at nscoville@ursinus.edu.