Classics in the History of Greek Mathematics

ISBN-13: 9789048158508 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 474 str.

Jean Christianidis

Opis

This volume includes a selection of 19 classic papers on the history of Greek mathematics that were published during the 20th century and affected significantly the state of the art of this field. It is divided into six thematic sections and covers all the major issues of the Greek mathematical production. First, the inclusion in one volume of a considerable number of papers that had been published for the first time in old, and in certain cases hard to find, scientific journals representing turning-points in the history of the field, constitutes a particularly useful aid for all those working on the history of mathematics. Second, by means of the selected papers and the introductory texts of six well-known modern historians of ancient mathematics that accompany them, the reader can follow the ways the historiography of Greek mathematics developed. Finally, the introductory texts that precede each chapter help the reader to approach critically the selected papers and at the same time to get an idea of the issues being further clarified by the new historiographical approaches.

The audience of the book includes scholars from history and philosophy of mathematics and mathematical sciences, scholars from history of science, students in the field of history of mathematics and history of sciences.

Recenzje

From the reviews:

In Classics in the History of Greek Mathematics, Christianidis has provided a very useful collection of papers that encompass many of these changes. Here one can find Unguru's original papers (and the angry responses they elicited), discussions of the supposed "crisis of foundations", papers on the origin of Greek axiomatics, on geometry and "algebra". The papers, alas, are in their original languages (German, French, and English), but anglophone readers can be reassured that most of the articles are in English, especially the more recent ones. In any case, this is an excellent place to go to learn what the historians have been up to, and the give-and-take of debate makes it fascinating. The book is probably too expensive for non-fanatic individual readers, but it is definitely a "must buy" for libraries [Fernando Q. Gouvêa; posted to MAA Reviews 1/11/2006]

"This is a tool for working historian ... because it offers a cross-section of the main historiographical currents that represents well the evolution of the field in the last decades. ... Essays are reproduced that date back more than 40 years, and written in French or German. This is a very important feature of the book, especially because a large portion of contemporary scholarship appears to resort almost exclusively to the most recent secondary literature and to contributions written in English." (Fabio Acerbi, Aestimatio, Issue 3, 2006)

Spis treści

The Beginnings of Greek Mathematics Studies on Greek Geometry Studies on proportion theory and incommensurability Studies on Greek Algebra Did the Greeeks have the notion of common fraction? Did they use it? Methodological Issues in the Historiography of Greek Mathematics