Reactionary mathematics a genealogy of purity / Massimo Mazzotti.
| Author/creator | Mazzotti, Massimo |
| Format | Electronic |
| Publication Info | Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2023. |
| Description | 343 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Supplemental Content | Full text available from eBooks on EBSCOhost |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Introduction: Mathematics as Social Order -- Adventures of the Analytic Reason -- Mathematics at the Barricades -- Empire of Analysis -- The Shape of the Kingdom -- Intermezzo: Algorithm or Intuition? -- The Geometry of Reaction -- A Scientific Counterrevolution -- A Reactionary Reason -- Mathematical Purity as Return to Order. |
| Abstract | "The nineteenth century opened with a major shift in European mathematics, and in the Kingdom of Naples, this occurred earlier than elsewhere. Between 1790 and 1830 its leading scientific institutions rejected as untrustworthy the "very modern mathematics" of French analysis and in its place consolidated, legitimated, and put to work a different mathematical culture. The Neapolitan mathematical resistance was a complete reorientation of mathematical practice. Over the unrestricted manipulation and application of algebraic algorithms, Neapolitan mathematicians called for a return to Greek-style geometry and the preeminence of pure mathematics. For all their apparent backwardness, Massimo Mazzotti explains, they were arguing for what became crucial features of modern mathematics: its voluntary restriction through a new kind of rigor and discipline, and the complete disconnection of mathematical truth from the empirical world-in other words, its purity. The Neapolitans, Mazzotti argues, were reacting to the widespread use of mathematical analysis in social and political arguments: theirs was a reactionary mathematics that aimed to technically refute the revolutionary mathematics of the Jacobins. Reactionaries targeted the modern administrative monarchy and its technocratic ambitions, and their mathematical critique questioned the legitimacy of analysis as deployed by expert groups, such as engineers and statisticians. What Mazzotti's penetrating history shows us in vivid detail is that producing mathematical knowledge was equally about producing certain forms of social, political, and economic order"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-319) and index. |
| Access restriction | Available only to authorized users. |
| Technical details | Mode of access: World Wide Web |
| Genre/form | Electronic books. |
| LCCN | 2022052916 |
| ISBN | 9780226826721 (cloth) |
| ISBN | 9780226826745 (paperback) |
| ISBN | (ebook) |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Electronic Resources | Access Content Online | ✔ Available |