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The Heritage of Thales

  • Textbook
  • © 1995

Overview

Authors:
  1. W. S. Anglin

    1. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

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  2. J. Lambek

    1. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

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    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Part of the book series: Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics (UTM)

Part of the book sub series: Readings in Mathematics (READINMATH)

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Table of contents (67 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-x
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  2. Introduction

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Introduction

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 1-3

  3. Topics in the History and Philosophy of Mathematics

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 5-5
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    2. Egyptian Mathematics

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 7-10

    3. Scales of Notation

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 11-14

    4. Prime Numbers

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 15-19

    5. Sumerian-Babylonian Mathematics

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 21-24

    6. More about Mesopotamian Mathematics

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 25-28

    7. The Dawn of Greek Mathematics

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 29-32

    8. Pythagoras and His School

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 33-36

    9. Perfect Numbers

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 37-40

    10. Regular Polyhedra

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 41-45

    11. The Crisis of Incommensurables

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 47-51

    12. From Heraclitus to Democritus

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 53-57

    13. Mathematics in Athens

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 59-65

    14. Plato and Aristotle on Mathematics

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 67-69

    15. Constructions with Ruler and Compass

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 71-77

    16. The Impossibility of Solving the Classical Problems

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 79-82

    17. Euclid

      • W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek
      Pages 83-87
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Keywords

About this book

This is intended as a textbook on the history, philosophy and foundations of mathematics, primarily for students specializing in mathematics, but we also wish to welcome interested students from the sciences, humanities and education. We have attempted to give approximately equal treatment to the three subjects: history, philosophy and mathematics. History We must emphasize that this is not a scholarly account of the history of mathematics, but rather an attempt to teach some good mathematics in a historical context. Since neither of the authors is a professional historian, we have made liberal use of secondary sources. We have tried to give ref­ cited facts and opinions. However, considering that this text erences for developed by repeated revisions from lecture notes of two courses given by one of us over a 25 year period, some attributions may have been lost. We could not resist retelling some amusing anecdotes, even when we suspect that they have no proven historical basis. As to the mathematicians listed in our account, we admit to being colour and gender blind; we have not attempted a balanced distribution of the mathematicians listed to meet today's standards of political correctness. Philosophy Both authors having wide philosophical interests, this text contains perhaps more philosophical asides than other books on the history of mathematics. For example, we discuss the relevance to mathematics of the pre-Socratic philosophers and of Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz and Russell. We also have vi Preface presented some original insights.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Mathematics and Statistics, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    W. S. Anglin, J. Lambek

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