Understanding the behaviour of the mathematical community (EiM 6)

Speaker: Maurice Chiodo, Centre for the Study of Existential Risk
Series: C.U. Ethics in Mathematics Society (CUEiMS)

Mathematicians, just like every other academic field, form a community, maintaining and handing down their own conventions, common beliefs, and schools of thought through the generations. This `mathematical' approach is extremely effective when working on abstract mathematics problems, but doesn't always work as well when considering broader industrial problems, even ones that involve mathematics. This lecture looks at how mathematicians are affected by the way they are trained and taught, and how the habits, norms, and perspectives they pick up can go on to affect and inhibit the way they carry out mathematical work, potentially leading to harm. It shows how they can identify and bridge any shortcomings in their skill sets, and how to release the notion that mathematics is `pure and neutral' in order to produce good solutions to industrial or social problems.

This is the sixth seminar of the 2026 Introduction to Ethics in Mathematics seminar series hosted by the CU Ethics in Mathematics Society. The lecture will be followed by discussion.