Guest talk: Past and present, the go-between: Writing on ancient mathematical texts (Sabetai Unguru, Tel-Aviv University)
- https://ancient-philosophy.hu-berlin.de/en/events/unguru
- Guest talk: Past and present, the go-between: Writing on ancient mathematical texts (Sabetai Unguru, Tel-Aviv University)
- 2016-02-02T18:00:00+01:00
- 2016-02-02T20:00:00+01:00
- When Feb 02, 2016 from 06:00 to 08:00
- Where Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Hannoversche Str. 6, room 1.03
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Sabetai Unguru is Professor Emeritus of the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at the University of Tel-Aviv. He was Director of the Cohn Institute from 1991-1997.
Abstract
Rudyard Kipling’s notorious “East is East and West is West and never shall the twain meet” has its counterpart in the confrontation between mathematics and history: “Mathematics is mathematics and history is history and the twain do meet in the history of mathematics.” Though mathematics and history represent mutually irreducible disciplinary matrices, their meeting in the history of mathematics raises serious methodological questions about the nature of the two disciplines. It is with these very questions, in light of very recent developments, that the lecture deals. The treatment is general and avoids any mathematical technicalities.