FOM: Announcement of Reading of Jacob Klein's work on Mathematics

[bill oates]

Hello FOMers

Just a notice that a reading of Jacob Klein's book is about to begin on the
internet at the Klein list on The Free Lance Academy.

I hope that the discussion will involve bringing in more modern ideas of the
nature of mathematics and so hope some of you will participate.

The list can be subscribed to by following the bouncing URL...

at: The Free Lance Academy, home of Slow Reading:
http://www.freelance-academy.org

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The purpose of this list is to host a slow reading of Jacob Klein's
seminal work, Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra, in
which Klein argues that the modern development of algebra, although
crucially based in the ancient work of Diophantus, involved an essential
transformation in which, while something new and powerful was created,
the original Greek understanding of numbers was lost. Thus, in addition
to its historiographic interest, Klein's inquiry makes available the
possibility that something of that now-lost original Greek understanding
of numbers might be helpful in attempting to resolve some of the latest
perplexities of modern physics.[The text is available in an inexpensive
re-print from Dover.]

For a brief discussion of what is meant by "slow reading," please Lance
Fletcher's essay at http://www.freelance-academy.org/slowread.htm.

This is one of a group of lists hosted by The Free Lance Academy, whose
main purpose is to create opportunities for serious, committed
intellectual inquiry outside the university, primarily by means of
online media such as internet mailing lists.  For the names of other
lists in this group, search on the relevant keywords listed below.

In the belief that the most effective way to learn something is to teach
it, another of the principal aims of The Free Lance Academy is to
provide opportunities for teaching, especially for people who might not
otherwise have such an opportunity. If you would like to become a
discussion leader of this list or any other list hosted by The Free
Lance Academy, please contact Lance Fletcher, the President of The Free
Lance Academy, at: lrf at aya.yale.edu