- The first exhaustive study on the indivisibles
- A mathematical, historical and philosophical approach of the intrusion and use of infinity in geometry during the XVIIth century
- Written by a team of well known scholars, after long common work and discussions
- Explains in what sense we can think about infinite, atom, continuity, indivisible in mathematics
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- About this book
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The tremendous success of indivisibles methods in geometry in the seventeenth century, responds to a vast project: installation of infinity in mathematics. The pathways by the authors are very diverse, as are the characterizations of indivisibles, but there are significant factors of unity between the various doctrines of indivisible; the permanence of the language used by all authors is the strongest sign.
These efforts do not lead to the stabilization of a mathematical theory (with principles or axioms, theorems respecting these first statements, followed by applications to a set of geometric situations), one must nevertheless admire the magnitude of the results obtained by these methods and highlights the rich relationships between them and integral calculus.
The present book aims to be exhaustive since it analyzes the works of all major inventors of methods of indivisibles during the seventeenth century, from Kepler to Leibniz. It takes into account the rich existing literature usually devoted to a single author. This book results from the joint work of a team of specialists able to browse through this entire important episode in the history of mathematics and to comment it.
The list of authors involved in indivisibles´ field is probably sufficient to realize the richness of this attempt; one meets Kepler, Cavalieri, Galileo, Torricelli, Gregoire de Saint Vincent, Descartes, Roberval, Pascal, Tacquet, Lalouvère, Guldin, Barrow, Mengoli, Wallis, Leibniz, Newton.
- Reviews
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“This book, which contains contributions by twelve historians of mathematics, provides a fascinating insight into the background and the rise of new ways of handling indivisibles in the 17th century. … The editor, Vincent Jullien, has given the book a unity that is praiseworthy and (almost) indivisible.” (William R. Shea, Mathematical Reviews, May, 2016)
- Table of contents (20 chapters)
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Explaining the Sudden Rise of Methods of Indivisibles
Pages 1-18
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From Aristotle to the Classical Age, the Debates Around Indivisibilism
Pages 19-30
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Cavalieri’s Indivisibles
Pages 31-55
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Kepler, Cavalieri, Guldin. Polemics with the Departed
Pages 57-86
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Indivisibles in the Work of Galileo
Pages 87-103
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Table of contents (20 chapters)
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Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Seventeenth-Century Indivisibles Revisited
- Editors
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- Vincent Jullien
- Series Title
- Science Networks. Historical Studies
- Series Volume
- 49
- Copyright
- 2015
- Publisher
- Birkhäuser Basel
- Copyright Holder
- Springer International Publishing Switzerland
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-319-00131-9
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-319-00131-9
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-319-00130-2
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-3-319-37495-6
- Series ISSN
- 1421-6329
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- VI, 499
- Number of Illustrations
- 161 b/w illustrations, 70 illustrations in colour
- Topics
