Workshop announcement. Charles Hutton (1737–1823): being mathematical in the Georgian period
Thursday 17 and Friday 18 December 2015: 10am–5pm
All Souls College, Oxford
Charles Hutton was a Tyneside coal hewer, Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, Fellow of the Royal Society, and an author whose books were read across the entire English-speaking world. His was one of the more spectacular examples of the power of mathematics to change individual lives in the Georgian period. In 1783–4 his celebrated row with Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, crystallised debates about the nature of British science and the place of mathematics within it. His publications, including his textbooks and his celebrated mathematical dictionary, were widely read into the second half of the nineteenth century, and attracted translations into at least five languages: but they also exemplified the limitations of mathematics as a subject for polite discourse and the limitations of British mathematics in the period of fluxions.
This workshop is part of an AHRC-funded project on Charles Hutton and his mathematics. It will explore Hutton's life, location and legacy, and the ambitions, limitations, and changing place in culture of British mathematics in his period. For a full programme and abstracts see the conference website at www.benjaminwardhaugh.co.uk/workshops/index.html
Attendance is free, but advance registration is required. To reserve a place, or for any enquiries, please contact [log in to unmask]
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