Article ID: CBB000930005

Mathematical Significance of Charles Babbage's The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise (2007)

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Nomura, Tsunehiko (Author)


科学史研究 Kagakusi Kenkyu (History of Science)
Volume: 46
Pages: 220--230


Publication Date: 2007
Edition Details: [Translated title.] In Japanese.
Language: Japanese

Charles Babbage was a polymath in Victorian England. He is famous for his calculator engines, especially the Analytical Engine, which is a protoype for modern computers. Also it is well known that the range of his writings are spread over many fields. The Ninth Bridgewater Treatise is a typical book indicating another talent of his. This treatise is known as a critic of Whewell's words in his Astronomy and General Physics Considered with Reference to Natural Theology. In his treatise, Whewell dismissed works of continental mathematicians, because they were injurious to devotion. However, Babbage stood against Whewell's position. When Babbage was an undergraduate of Cambridge, he organized the "Analytical Society" with his friends. The Society's object was to introduce continental mathematics into England. Babbage had learned the importance of Continental Analysis, so he criticized Whewell. Another topic of Babbage's treatise is Hume's arguemnt about miracles. Using Laplace's probability theory and singular points of curves of the fourth degree, Babbage criticized Hume's thought. Thus Babbage manifested his idea about natural theology, as a mathematician who adhered continental analysis.

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Authors & Contributors
Gray, Jeremy
Quinn, Aleta
Jonah Dutz
Ursula Martin
Enea, Maria Rosaria
Cohen, Yvonne
Concepts
Mathematics
Mathematical analysis
Biographies
Natural theology
Logic
Arithmetic
Time Periods
19th century
20th century, early
20th century
18th century
Places
Great Britain
France
Italy
Germany
Europe
British Isles
Institutions
Cambridge University
Oxford University
University of Chicago
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