Conference Announcement
Dear All,
I am very pleased to announce that an international conference on the role and function of ‘commentaries’ on ancient Greek and Arabic mathematical texts will be hosted by the RTG ‘Philosophy, Science and the Sciences’, Humboldt University of Berlin, and I would be grateful if you could circulate this email to colleagues and students who might be interested. In the following webpage, you can find the programme, the abstracts, and registration information: http://msiala01.wixsite.com/onmathemata.
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On Mathemata
17-18 November 2016
The corpus of Greek and Arabic mathematical literature is large and heterogeneous, embracing material not only from ‘original’ mathematical treatises, but also from a broad category of texts, usually described as comments or scholia. Although these texts present a high degree of diversity in terms of form (e.g., independent treatises, introductory chapters, marginal notes) and function (e.g., restoring ‘corrupted’ texts, providing auxiliary material such as diagrams and tables, establishing connections with other treatises), they arguably stand out as a literary genre in its own right. Their aim is to explain, ‘improve’, and supplement the works of the ancient mathematicians. Within this framework, a series of interesting questions emerges: When were these texts composed, in what context, and for what purpose? What kind of information could we extract from them? Can we then offer a corresponding typology/classification? In which ways did they shape contemporaneous mathematical and commenting practices? Which operations were carried out in order to produce them? What constituted a restoration/ ‘purification’ of an ancient mathematical treatise? What do we mean by the term ‘mathematical error’? What are the differences and similarities in the commenting approaches between Greek and Islamic scholars? What kind of methodological tools are employed by historians today in order to approach these texts? These are only some of the questions that this conference seeks to address.
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Please notice that due to limited space, unfortunately, we will only be able to accept a very small number of participants.
With best regards,
Dr Michalis Sialaros
RTG ‘Philosophy, Science and the Sciences’ Research Fellow
Department of Philosophy
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
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