Duncan F. Gregory and Robert Leslie Ellis: Second-Generation Reformers of British Mathematics (2018)
The paper discusses some of the contributions of Duncan Farquharson Gregory and Robert Leslie Ellis to symbolical algebra and their views on the philosophy of mathematics with the aim of revisiting the accepted characterisation of the second generation of reformers of British mathematics found in Crosbie Smith and Norton Wise’s seminal Energy and Empire. It is argued that at least some of the features brought to the fore in their treatment of the work of Gregory and Ellis – namely “geometrical methods” in mathematics and “anti-metaphysical”, “non-hypothetical” and “practical” knowledge – cannot be straightforwardly upheld. On the one hand, Gregory’s generalisation of George Peacock’s symbolical algebra was connected to several natural philosophical considerations underlying the Scottish Newtonians’ “abstractionism” and “geometrical fluxional analysis”. On the other hand, Ellis’s idealist philosophy of mathematics and science insisted that the a priori necessary truths of mathematics could inform the “hypothetical part of scientific induction”. A more nuanced understanding of the place of the second generation of reformers within the analytical revolution in Victorian Britain should thus take into account the eclectic foundational position that arises from the work of Gregory and Ellis.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
Gray, Jeremy;
Parshall, Karen Hunger;
(2007)
Episodes in the History of Modern Algebra (1800--1950)
Article
Ferraro, Giovanni;
Panza, Marco;
(2012)
Lagrange's Theory of Analytical Functions and His Ideal of Purity of Method
Article
Lukas M. Verburgt;
(2016)
Duncan F. Gregory, William Walton and the Development of British Algebra: ‘Algebraical Geometry’, ‘Geometrical Algebra’, Abstraction
Article
Allaire, Patricia R.;
Bradley, Robert E.;
(2002)
Symbolical Algebra as a Foundation for Calculus: D. F. Gregory's Contribution
Article
Jan Halák;
(2022)
Mathematics embodied: Merleau-Ponty on geometry and algebra as fields of motor enaction
Book
Marco Panza;
(2021)
Modes de l’analyse et formes de la géométrie
Thesis
Welsh, Whitney Elizabeth;
(2011)
Unthinkable: Mathematics and the Rise of the West
Article
Nastasi, Tina;
(2008)
La storia del pensiero scientifico e il suo significato nell'opera di Federigo Enriques
Book
Elena Anne Corie Marchisotto;
Francisco Rodriguez-Consuegra;
James T. Smith;
(2021)
The Legacy of Mario Pieri in Foundations and Philosophy of Mathematics
Book
Charpentier, Éric;
Ghys, Étienne;
Lesne, Annick;
(2010)
The Scientific Legacy of Poincaré
Article
Vladimir Dragović;
Irina Goryuchkina;
(2020)
Polygons of Petrović and Fine, algebraic ODEs, and contemporary mathematics
Book
Gandon, Sébastien;
(2012)
Russell's Unknown Logicism: A Study in the History and Philosophy of Mathematics
Book
Linsky, Bernard;
(2011)
The Evolution of Principia Mathematica: Bertrand Russell's Manuscripts and Notes for the Second Edition
Article
Heis, Jeremy;
(2011)
Ernst Cassirer's Neo-Kantian Philosophy of Geometry
Article
Brigaglia, Aldo;
Ciliberto, Ciro;
(2004)
Remarks on the Relations Between the Italian and American Schools of Algebraic Geometry in the First Decades of the 20th Century
Article
N H Bingham;
W J Krzanowski;
(2022)
Linear algebra and multivariate analysis in statistics: development and interconnections in the twentieth century
Article
Catherine Goldstein;
(2016)
«Découvrir des principes en classant» : la classification des formes quadratiques selon Charles Hermite
Article
Lambert, Kevin;
(2013)
A Natural History of Mathematics: George Peacock and the Making of English Algebra
Article
Giovanelli, Marco;
(2010)
Urbild und Abbild: Leibniz, Kant und Hausdorff über das Raumproblem
Book
Hyder, David Jalal;
(2009)
The Determinate World: Kant and Helmholtz on the Physical Meaning of Geometry
Be the first to comment!