Geometry is something we are born with, according to a new study
published in the journal Science. A team of researchers, led by
Stanislas Dehaene of the Collège de France, put a series of
geometric tests to a remote Amazonian tribe called the
Mundurukú, and found that they did just as well as a group of US
children — even though their language does not contain words for
geometric concepts and they do not receive any geometric or
mathematical schooling. This study contributes to the age-old
debate about whether maths is hard-wired into our brain, or
something we acquire as we grow up. According to the Greek
philosopher Plato, the question already occurred to the famed
Socrates over 2000 years ago. Reportedly, he subjected his
uneducated slave to geometry tests, and concluded that the slave
"must have always possessed this knowledge." Modern
psychologists, however, are not so certain. The debate revolves
very much around the interplay between intelligence and
language, with some claiming that it's our ability