Mathematics as thought

Mathematics should be integrated into intellectual history, which the text says has largely neglected it in favour of political thought. Francis Galton's discovery of regression to the mean, first formulated in his studies of heredity, shows how a mathematical idea can make hidden features of the world visible. The text cites Paul Lockhart's *A Mathematician's Lament* (2009), which describes mathematics as a creative pursuit like poetry, and quotes John von Neumann's view that mathematical rigour has changed over time. Quentin Skinner and Michel Foucault are faulted for portraying intellectual history mainly through politics and power, leaving out the role of mathematics and technology.