HiPhiS Seminar: “The Origins of Mathematical Proof”

Tuesday, March 28, 2017, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Polytech, Building 31, Serge Peytavin Lecture Hall, Triolet Campus.
Free admission.
Interuniversity Seminar on the History and Philosophy of Science, 2017 Series: “Causes, Foundations, Origins.”
Presentation by Gilbert Arsac, mathematician, historian, and mathematics educator; Honorary Professor at Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University.

Abstract:

Around the fourth and third centuries B.C., a transformation in mathematics took place in Greece, culminating in the writing of Euclid’s *Elements* —the most widely read book in the world after the Bible—whose essential originality lies in presenting mathematics as a body of knowledge logically organized through rigorous proofs, a feature not found in any other civilization.Around the same time, the Greeks discovered—and here too they were the only ones to do so—the phenomena of incommensurability in geometry and irrationality in the realm of numbers. The presentation will clarify the historical facts and examine the possible role played in these revolutions by motivations inherent to mathematics itself or by general philosophical debates in contemporary Greece.
Joint invitation with IMAG – Institut Montpelliérain Alexandre Grothendieck.
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