Timeline for Readings for an honors liberal art math course
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
4 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 3, 2012 at 3:29 | history | edited | Kerry | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
fixed a few typos
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| Mar 3, 2012 at 3:23 | comment | added | Kerry | @Douglas Zare: One should note that in every historical period there are heros and villains like now. My point of achieving a synthesis of history and mathematics is not to point out that Newton quarreled with Flamsteed, or Laplace had been dishonest, or Galois had been wronged, or Luzin was slapped by Kolmogorov, etc. Such things are everywhere to be seen and nowhere to be avoided. I mean how one's mathematical idea influenced the mathematical community as a whole. I thought I have clarified this already in the first paragraph. | |
| Mar 3, 2012 at 0:48 | comment | added | Douglas Zare | I disagree with the idea of a synthesis. I have been dismayed to find that some historical mathematicians whose work is beautiful had some unpleasant political beliefs or objectionable/criminal actions, such as those who campaigned to purge universities of Jewish mathematicians in the 1920s and 30s. I think it's great that mathematicians try to judge mathematical work on its own merits, and bringing in history may both displace mathematics and degrade it. | |
| Mar 3, 2012 at 0:14 | history | answered | Kerry | CC BY-SA 3.0 |