Reflecting on Ubiratan d’Ambrosio’s pursuit of peace, social justice, and nonkilling mathematics : a transition from subordination to autonomy through ethnomathematics.

Abstract

One of the main contributions of D’Ambrosio for humanity was his concern about how humanity can pursue peace and social justice and how education and mathematics education, in particular, can support this objective. H is life history shows that D’Ambrosio reflected on peace and social justice and on how ethnomathematics contributes to the development and the evolution of humankind. This context leads us to understand that humanity depends essentially on the analysis of his proposed triad: individual-society-nature, and the effective-ness of the relations among these elements. However, it is necessary to avoid that survival and transcendence are used as the roots for conflict and domination, which is developed into confrontation, violence, and the submission of members of distinct cultures. Therefore, D’Ambrosio’s search for peace through the development of non-killing mathematics is also related to the expansion of social justice. Thus, D’Ambrosio’s personal life and professional and academic achievements are responses to achieve this objective.