The Creative Growth of Mathematics.

It is a trivial remark that to discuss the philosophy of any topic, one must have at least a good understanding of the topic itself in order to raise philosophical problems about it. However, if the topic happens to be mathematics, this does not seem to be the case. Philosophers are not particularly interested in mathematical practice itself. Often they prefer the reduced and all too simplified picture of mathematicians as “theorem proving machines”. In this paper I present a rough sketch on the macro-, meso- and microlevel of a theory of mathematical practice, that does more justice to the amazing and unexpected complexities of the mathematicians' daily universe.