Abstract
The paper starts by looking at how ‘practical’ and ‘theoretical’ mathematics and their relation
have been understood from the Greeks to Christian Wolff and by historians of mathematics
from Montucla to recent days. Drawing on earlier work of mine, and on the giants
on whose shoulders I (try to) stand, I then suggest a categorization of the mathematical knowledge types a historian has to deal with: the ‘sub-scientific’ type, carried by practitioners taught in an apprenticeship network; the ‘scholasticized’ type, taught supposedly for practice but in a ‘scribal’ school by masters whose own genuine practice is that of teaching; and the ‘scientific’ or theory-oriented type. In the end, the utility of this categorization is tried out on two specific cases.
have been understood from the Greeks to Christian Wolff and by historians of mathematics
from Montucla to recent days. Drawing on earlier work of mine, and on the giants
on whose shoulders I (try to) stand, I then suggest a categorization of the mathematical knowledge types a historian has to deal with: the ‘sub-scientific’ type, carried by practitioners taught in an apprenticeship network; the ‘scholasticized’ type, taught supposedly for practice but in a ‘scribal’ school by masters whose own genuine practice is that of teaching; and the ‘scientific’ or theory-oriented type. In the end, the utility of this categorization is tried out on two specific cases.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Studies on the Ancient Exact Sciences in Honour of Lis Brack-Bernsen |
| Editors | John M. Steele, Mathieu Ossendrijver |
| Place of Publication | Berlin |
| Publisher | Edition Topoi |
| Publication date | 2017 |
| Pages | 207-224 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-3-9816384-5-5 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |
| Series | Topoi - Berlin Studies of the Ancient World |
|---|---|
| Volume | 44 |
| ISSN | 2191-5806 |