The origins of geometry The Universal: One of its First Constructions The Differences: Chaos in the History of Science Synthesis: The Science of History Part One: Customs and Laws 1. First in History: Anaximander Spaces without Exclusion: Juridical Origins 2. First in the rite: The royal victim Spaces of Exclusion: Political Origins 3. First in dialectic: The interlocutor Spaces of Exclusion: Discursive Origins 4.The Point at Noon Part Two: Nature 5.First in History: Thales From the pyramid to the tetrahedron: The optical origin From Diogenes to Thales: The ethical origin From the sun to the earth: The astronomical origin 6. First in philosophy: The ignorant slave boy From Pythagoras to Zeno: The algorithmic origin 7. First in logic: The element The automatic origin and Return to sociopolitical origins Part three: Conclusion 8. The Measurement of the Earth: Herodotus Notes
The first english translation of the final installment in Michel Serres' 'Foundations' series which see him take on the history of mathematics.
Michel Serres is a Professor in the History of Science at Stanford University and a member of the Académie Française. A renowned and popular philosopher, he is a prize-winning author of essays and books, such as The Five Senses, Rome and Statues. Randolph Burks is a philosopher specializing in phenomenology and philosophies of the body and nature. He has translated several works by Michel Serres, including Biogea, Variations on the Body and The Hermaphrodite (forthcoming) and the other two titles in the 'Foundations' series.
Michel Serres is one of the most original philosophers on our
planet. Trained in mathematics and the philosophy of science, he
straddles the divide between the “two cultures” of science and the
humanities, and has developed a style of writing that eschews the
usual trappings of academic prose. Geometry is ostensibly an
analysis of the origins of geometry in ancient Greece, but in the
process, it presents an entire philosophy of space and time, of the
nature of science and knowledge, and even of their relations to
politics and religion. This is Serres at his best: inventive,
provocative, and profound.
*Daniel W. Smith, Professor of Philosophy, Purdue University,
USA*
This fine new translation of Michel Serres' third book of
foundations, Geometry, shows him combining the concerns of his
earlier work, on Lucretius and Leibniz, with the historical,
mythological, and cultural themes prominent in the two previous
books, Rome and Statues. Here he explores how innovation requires a
return to a pre-history, before the installation of a current
regime of inquiry, and he thus identifies multiple origins for
geometry. For those new to his work, this text provides an
excellent introduction to the sheer range and exhilaration of his
thinking. For those already intrigued, if puzzled, it provides
indispensable linkages and insights into the distinctive and
inimitable logic of his inquiries, in which the notion of
'foundation' itself undergoes a surprising metamorphosis.
*Joanna Hodge, Professor of Philosophy, Manchester Metropolitan
University, UK*
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