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Explores the nature of mathematical proof in a range of historical settings, providing the first comprehensive history of proof.

Mathematics, Ancient --- Proof theory --- Logic, Symbolic and mathematical --- Ancient mathematics --- Mathematics --- Logic of mathematics --- Mathematics, Logic of --- Philosophy. --- History. --- Prova, Teoria de la. --- Matemàtica --- Lògica de la matemàtica --- Matemàtica, Lògica de la --- Demostració, Teoria de la --- Lògica matemàtica --- Filosofia. --- Histoire des mathematiques --- Logique mathematique --- Theorie de la preuve

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This book explores the hypothesis that the types of inscription or text used by a given community of practitioners are designed in the very same process as the one producing concepts and results. The book sets out to show how, in exactly the same way as for the other outcomes of scientific activity, all kinds of factors, cognitive as well as cultural, technological, social or institutional, conjoin in shaping the various types of writings and texts used by the practitioners of the sciences. To make this point, the book opts for a genuinely multicultural approach to the texts produced in the context of practices of knowledge. It is predicated on the conviction that, in order to approach any topic in the history of science from a theoretical point of view, it may be fruitful to consider it from a global perspective. The book hence does not only gather papers dealing with geometrical papyri of antiquity, sixteenth century French books in algebra, seventeenth century scientific manuscripts and paintings, eighteenth and nineteenth century memoirs published by European academies or scientific journals, and Western Opera Omnia. It also considers the problems of interpretation relating to reading Babylonian clay tablets, Sanskrit oral scriptures and Chinese books and illustrations. Thus it enables the reader to explore the diversity of forms which texts have taken in history and the wide range of uses they have inspired. This volume will be of interest to historians, philosophers of science, linguists and anthropologists

Multidisciplinary collective works --- Ethnology. Cultural anthropology --- Mathematics --- History --- interdisciplinair onderzoek --- geschiedenis --- wiskunde

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This book focuses on the ancient Near East, early imperial China, South-East Asia, and medieval Europe, shedding light on mathematical knowledge and practices documented by sources relating to the administrative and economic activities of officials, merchants and other actors. It compares these to mathematical texts produced in related school contexts or reflecting the pursuit of mathematics for its own sake to reveal the diversity of mathematical practices in each of these geographical areas of the ancient world. Based on case studies from various periods and political, economic and social contexts, it explores how, in each part of the world discussed, it is possible to identify and describe the different cultures of quantification and computation as well as their points of contact. The thirteen chapters draw on a wide variety of texts from ancient Near East, China, South-East Asia and medieval Europe, which are analyzed by researchers from various fields, including mathematics, history, philology, archaeology and economics. The book will appeal to historians of science, economists and institutional historians of the ancient and medieval world, and also to Assyriologists, Indologists, Sinologists and experts on medieval Europe.

Theory of knowledge --- Mathematics --- World history --- History --- geschiedenis --- economische geschiedenis --- kennisleer --- wiskunde

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Philosophy of science --- Mathematics --- History --- geschiedenis --- wetenschapsfilosofie --- wiskunde