In a study inspired by author's observation of the spiraling out of control use of mathematics by bankers, financiers and economists, the Western world's reliance on arithmetic and geometry is traced back, with support from the works of Medieval historian Alfred Crosby and of Anthropologist of Knowledge Paul Jorion, to its Medieval and Antiquity roots. The author bases on different areas such as philosophy with François Jullien's Chinese thought and Michel Bitbol with his epistemological reflections.