Reviel Netz: The Shaping of Deduction in Greek Mathematics: A Study in Cognitive History (1999)

“The aim of this book is to explain the shape of Greek mathematical thinking. It can be read on three levels: first as a description of the practices of Greek mathematics; second as a theory of the emergence of the deductive method; and third as a case-study for a general view on the history of science. The starting point for the enquiry is geometry and the lettered diagram. Reviel Netz exploits the mathematicians’ practices in the construction and lettering of their diagrams, and the continuing interaction between text and diagram in their proofs, to illuminate the underlying cognitive processes. A close examination of the mathematical use of language follows, especially mathematicans’ use of repeated formulae. Two crucial chapters set out to show how mathematical proofs are structured and explain why Greek mathematical practice manages to be so satisfactory. A final chapter looks into the broader historical setting of Greek mathematical practice.”

“This is, without contest, the most important book of science studies to appear since Shapin and Schaffer’s Leviathan and the Air-Pump.” (Bruno Latour in his review for Social Studies of Science)

Publisher Cambridge University Press, 1999
Volume 51 of Ideas in Context
ISBN 0521622794
327 pages

review (Nathan Sidoli, Educational Studies in Mathematics)
review (Jens Høyrup, Studia Logica)
review (Christian Marinus Taisbak, Mathematical Association of America)

Publisher

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