schedule
Expect this page to be updated frequently through the semester.
Week 1
- Day 1 - Personal Experiences of Math (with Poincare); READING: Henri Poincare, The Foundations of Science, "Science and Hypothesis," part I, Chapter I, "On the Nature of Mathematical Reasoning;" and "The Value of Science," Part I, Chapter I: "Intuition and Logic in Mathematics."
Week 2
Week 3
Classical and Medieval Thought
- Day 1 - Plato and Aristotle: Read Plato's Republic, Book VII and Aristotle's Metaphysics, either book 13 or book 14.
- for Plato, you can start about half-way down with the phrase "And all arithmetic and calculation have to do with number? Yes."
- Day 2 - Martianus Capella and Hugh of St. Victor: The Marriage of Mercury and Philology is on the reserve shelf. There are chapters on Music, Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy - choose one and preferably photo copy it so others can get to the book.
- Geometry: Dylan, Chester.
- Arithmetic: Stefan, John.
- Astronomy: Ben, Matt.
- Harmony: Adam.
- Read also: Hugh of St. Victor: read the Didascalion book II (it's quite short - starts on pg 61).
Week 4
Islamic and Early Modern Thought:
Week 5
Intro to Biography
- Day 1 - writing biography -
- Day 2 - Erdos, Ramanujan, Hardy, background character from the Liebniz reading (Pascal, Barrow,...),
Week 6
primary sources
- Day 1 - Sources for the Life of Leibniz
- Choose a handful of letters, published material, descriptions, early notes on math, anything at all. Aim to read 30-50 pages from the following list:
- Any of the other letters on math from the Early Treatises on Math
- Any of a series of letters to friends on a lot of different topics at Leibniz Translations.
- Any one of a number of other philosophical works in the 193's in the library (also 193.53...political works, letters, monads, God, you name it.)
- Day 2 - Transmission, naming, and individuals
- Two chapters from The Legacy of Muslim Spain: "The Exact Sciences," pgs. 952-973; and "The Translating Activity in Medieval Spain," pgs. 1036-1058. The book is on reserve.
- Fibonacci's Liber Abaci, the first couple of books.
Week 7
- Day 1 - Autobiography - Cardano - On reserve in the library. Read a selection of chapters (most are very short). Also, the St Andrews Biography and their translation of parts of the conversation about the cubic between Tartaglia and Cardano.
- Day 2 - Summary of the course so far - short presentations on final projects to date, discussion of skills still needed to complete final project, and discussion of components missing from the course.
Spring Break
Week 8
- Day 1 - Bell, Men of Mathematics (on reserve in the library). Read the Leibniz chapter and at least one other. Email the class when you choose which other(s) you are reading so there isn't any/much overlap in choices.
- Day 2 - Genius in mathematic biography - Choose two of the following three articles. Read the article and, if appropriate, the portion from Bell (in the case of Galois and Newton):
Week 9
Math and social questions
- Day 1 - Genius and Gender - Go back and read the third article that you didn't read about genius from last week as well as Galois and Newton from Bell. Then read this article on questions of gender in relation to ideas of genius:
- Day 2 - Social issues - here there are a number of possible social issues you can choose from to do your own research. You will present in class on whatever issue you choose and then write a longer response paper about your research into this issue and it's influence on mathematics and the history of math:
- Mathematics in Nazi Germany
- Mathematics and non-Western Math
- Math and Gender continued
- Math and applications in social questions
- Math and education for social justice (check out radicalmath.org)
- NB: the essay on math and social questions will be due Monday 4/13
Week 10
Primary Sources and Biography
- Day 1 - Choose your own mathematician and look into their biography. We especially encourage looking at primary sources and will be happy to help you find something.
- Day 2 - Leibniz workday (or workday on individual biographies if we choose that direction.)
Week 11
Biography goes to the Movies!
- Day 1 - Pick a mathematician about which there is a movie and do some background research. The options are Bertrand Russell, Alan Turing, John Nash, Steven Hawking, and Paul Erdos. If you have another idea, feel free to ask us and if it sounds good, we'll probably say yes.
- Day 2 - Watch the movie! (or read the comic) One of the following:
- Beautiful Mind (Nash)
- Theory of Everything (Hawking)
- N is a Number (Erdos)
- Logicomix (Russell)
- Imitation Game (Turing)
Week 12
- Day 1 - Autobiography and Memoir - choose one of the following:
- Littlewood, "A Mathematical Miscellany."
- Hardy, "A Mathematician's Apology."
- Peter Lax, "?"
- Richard Feynman, either "Surely you're joking" or "What do you care what other people think?"
- Day 2 - Leibniz presentations day - where is everyone at?
Week 13
- General Overview! What have you learned? What do you now think math is? What do you think of biography? Etc.?
