PHILOSOPHICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL NATURE OF ORAL CALCULATION SKILLSAND THEIR CATEGORICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

This article undertakes a systematic philosophical and epistemological investigation of the concept of "oral calculation skills". For the first time within contemporary analytic philosophy of mathematics and cognitive epistemology, a comprehensive scientific definition of this concept is proposed, and its structural components are subjected to thematic classification. It is demonstrated that oral calculation skills constitute a distinctive cognitive phenomenon that combines procedural and declarative knowledge, builds upon proto-arithmetical human capacities, and is realized through mechanisms of working memory, mental representations, and culturally conditioned computational strategies. The article draws upon current analytical approaches in the epistemology of mathematics, cognitive science, and philosophy of mind. A categorical scheme for analyzing this phenomenon is proposed, encompassing ontological, epistemological, processual, and cultural-semiotic dimensions. It is argued that oral arithmetic, as an object of epistemological inquiry, cannot be reduced either to a purely computational process or to pedagogical practice, but constitutes an independent epistemic category with a distinctive knowledge structure.