Massimo Mazzotti
Reactionary Mathematics: A Genealogy of Purity
Reactionary Mathematics: A Genealogy of Purity
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- More about Reactionary Mathematics: A Genealogy of Purity
Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 17 May 2023
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
The nineteenth century marked a significant transformation in European mathematics, with the Kingdom of Naples experiencing this shift earlier than other regions. Between 1790 and 1830, the leading scientific institutions in Naples rejected the "very modern mathematics" of French analysis and instead consolidated, legitimized, and put to work a distinct mathematical culture. This Neapolitan mathematical resistance represented a complete reorientation of mathematical practice. Neapolitan mathematicians advocated for a return to Greek-style geometry and the preeminence of pure mathematics, emphasizing the voluntary restriction of algebraic algorithms and the complete disconnection of mathematical truth from the empirical world.
Despite their apparent backwardness, Massimo Mazzotti argues that the Neapolitans were advocating for crucial features of modern mathematics: the development of rigor and discipline through voluntary restriction and the separation of mathematical truth from the empirical world. Their reactionary mathematics aimed to technically refute the revolutionary mathematics of the Jacobins. During the Restoration, expert groups in the service of the modern administrative state reaffirmed the role of pure mathematics as the foundation of a newly rigorous mathematics, which was now conceived as a neutral tool for modernization.
Mazzotti's penetrating history reveals that producing mathematical knowledge was not solely about generating technical advancements but also about producing specific forms of social, political, and economic order. The Neapolitan resistance against modern mathematics played a significant role in shaping the development of modern mathematics and its cornerstone, mathematical purity, as a political phenomenon.
Weight: 626g
Dimension: 159 x 238 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780226826721
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