ABSTRACT
The present chapter tries to explore some of the specific epistemological features of mathematical knowledge as it is constituted in communicative interactions between teacher and students.1 A basic and often implicit underlying philosophy of mathematics in teaching is that of a ‘sufficiently liberal platonism’ which teachers have acquired during their university studies and then taken with them to school (Goodman, 1979). Introduced into mathematics teaching, this philosophy of mathematical knowledge undergoes certain changes because of specific conditions and requirements of interactive communication patterns and routines in the classroom discourse.
