Revolutions in Mathematics
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.86 (976 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0198514867 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 368 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-06-22 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Donald Gillies is at King's College London.
To this are added new contributions from nine other experts in the history of mathematics, who each discuss an important episode and consider whether it was a revolution. Social revolutions--critical periods of decisive, qualitative change--are a commonly acknowledged historical fact. This book is the first comprehensive examination of the question. It reprints the original papers of leading supporters and opponents, together with additional chapters giving their current views. The whole question of mathematical revolutions is thus examined comprehensively and from a variety of perspectives, and will interest mathematicians, philosophers, and historians alike.. The publication of Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions in 1962 led to an exciting discussion of revolutions in the natural sciences; an off-shoot of this was a debate in the United States in the mid-1970's as to whether the concept of revolution could be applied to mathematics as well as science
"Some of the major historical developments in mathematics are considered at length, enriching the overall quality of the presentation. a good reference for those who are interested in the history of mathematics." --Science Books and Films"The insightful contributions found in this book prove that the tools of Kuhnian analysis, in particular the idea of a revolution, may be applied usefully to produce history of the sort that goes beyond description in the logical presentation of ideas, to reveal what is at the heart of the process of discovery." --Science