Ancient Greek Philosophy and Mathematics
Explores the relationship between ancient Greek philosophy and mathematics. Investigates how ideas of definition, reason, argument and proof, rationality/irrationality, number, quality and quantity, truth, and even the idea of an idea were shaped by the interplay of philosophic and mathematical inquiry. Examines how discovery of the incommensurability of magnitudes challenged the Greek presumption that the cosmos is fully understandable. Explores the influence of mathematics on ancient Greek ethical theories. Authors: Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Nicomachus, Theon of Smyrna, Bacon, Descartes, Dedekind, and Newton. Preference to students in Concourse and ESG.
Spring 2016
Topics
- Introduction
- A. Putting the Irrational in Ratio
- B. Fitting Ideas to the World
- C. The Pursuit of Truth and the Idea of an Idea
- D. The Truth as a Surd
- E. Potentiality as a Way of Being
- Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
- Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (cont.)
- Isaac Newton’s Arithmetica Universalis
Readings
- WEEK #: 1 · TOPICS: Introduction · READINGS: No readings for this session.
- Euclid. Euclid’s Elements . Green Lion Press, 2002. ISBN: 9781888009194.
- Descartes, Rene. The Geometry of René Descartes: With a Facsimile of the First Edition . Dover Publications, Incorporation, 1954. ISBN: 9780486600680.
- Aristotle. The Nichomachean Ethics . Penguin Classics, 2004. ISBN: 9780140449495.
- Book I-All chapters except 6, 9, and 10. (Anyone caught reading 6, 9, or 10 will be banished. Pay special attention to chapter 3.)
- Book III-Read only chapters 6, 7, and 11 (if you’re inspired to read more, that would be both and dandy.)
- Book IV-Chapters 6 and 7. (If you want to see how the idea of virtue as a mean works in other virtues, then read more chapters.
- Isaac Newton’s Arithmetica Universalis
- Klein, Jacob. “The World of Physics and the ‘Natural’ World.” The St. John’s Review 33, no. 1 (1981): 22–34.
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: None U (Spring) Not offered regularly; consult department 3-0-9 units. HASS-H; CI-H
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2016
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.