Anachronisms in the History of Mathematics: Essays on the Historical Interpretation of Mathematical Texts , by Niccolò Guicciardini, ed.
- Autores: Raffaele Danna
- Localización: Nuncius: annali di storia della scienza, ISSN 0394-7394, Vol. 37, Nº. Extra 3, 2022 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Rethinking Ancient Remains), págs. 721-723
- Idioma: inglés
- Enlaces
-
Resumen
Anachronisms in the History of Mathematics is a collection of essays that stems from a workshop convened by Niccolò Guicciardini at the California Institute of Technology in 2018.
If the concept of anachronism is pivotal to any historical reconstruction, it holds a particularly complex position in the history of mathematics. On the one hand, an essentialist interpretation would stress the stability—some would go as far as to claim its permanence and universality—of mathematics. To a similar interpretation, the history of mathematics is the history of a cumu- lative development, the unfolding of a coherent body of knowledge which is universal and, therefore, independent from its ‘context’. On the other hand, a close reading of historical primary sources can show that, also in the case of mathematical knowledge, stability has been achieved amongst a high degree of diversity. It is not necessary to look very far in time or space to find similar examples. While most ‘Western-educated’ readers will find a remarkable sense of ‘kinship’ while skimming through a modern edition of Euclid’s Elements, that comforting feeling will rapidly disappear when confronting, for example, medieval European vernacular algebra written in rhetorical style (i.e. word by word, without symbols). To every reader who has ventured in a similar explo- ration, it is hardly possible to escape the impression that, also in the case of mathematics, the past can show a high degree of ‘foreignness’. This tension between mathematical stability and historical diversity is analysed throughout the contributions of the book, providing a rich series of case studies.
