Thomas Harriot on Combinations

Ian Maclean

Revue d'histoire des mathématiques (2005)

  • Volume: 11, Issue: 1, page 57-88
  • ISSN: 1262-022X

Abstract

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Thomas Harriot (1560?–1621) is known today as an innovative mathematician and a natural philosopher with wide intellectual horizons. This paper will look at his interest in combinations in three contexts: language (anagrams), natural philosophy (the question of atomism) and mathematics (number theory), in order to assess where to situate him in respect of three current historiographical debates: 1) whether there existed in the late Renaissance two opposed mentalities, the occult and the scientific; 2) whether all mathematical science was clearly demarcated from natural philosophy at that time; and 3) whether all enquiry into nature (including that pursued through mathematics) entailed a consideration of the attributes of God Himself. The paper argues from the case of Harriot that as a man capable of highly abstract mathematical thought, his work on combinations of all kinds is scarcely marked at all by the social, political and religious context from which it arose (which is not to say that his work on alchemy or on practical mathematics is unmarked in the same way), and that he, like many of his contemporaries, was capable of compartmentalising his mind, and of according different modes and degrees of intellectual commitment to different areas of his mental universe.

How to cite

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Maclean, Ian. "Thomas Harriot on Combinations." Revue d'histoire des mathématiques 11.1 (2005): 57-88. <http://eudml.org/doc/252029>.

@article{Maclean2005,
abstract = {Thomas Harriot (1560?–1621) is known today as an innovative mathematician and a natural philosopher with wide intellectual horizons. This paper will look at his interest in combinations in three contexts: language (anagrams), natural philosophy (the question of atomism) and mathematics (number theory), in order to assess where to situate him in respect of three current historiographical debates: 1) whether there existed in the late Renaissance two opposed mentalities, the occult and the scientific; 2) whether all mathematical science was clearly demarcated from natural philosophy at that time; and 3) whether all enquiry into nature (including that pursued through mathematics) entailed a consideration of the attributes of God Himself. The paper argues from the case of Harriot that as a man capable of highly abstract mathematical thought, his work on combinations of all kinds is scarcely marked at all by the social, political and religious context from which it arose (which is not to say that his work on alchemy or on practical mathematics is unmarked in the same way), and that he, like many of his contemporaries, was capable of compartmentalising his mind, and of according different modes and degrees of intellectual commitment to different areas of his mental universe.},
author = {Maclean, Ian},
journal = {Revue d'histoire des mathématiques},
keywords = {renaissance; combinations; anagrams; atomism; number theory},
language = {eng},
number = {1},
pages = {57-88},
publisher = {Société mathématique de France},
title = {Thomas Harriot on Combinations},
url = {http://eudml.org/doc/252029},
volume = {11},
year = {2005},
}

TY - JOUR
AU - Maclean, Ian
TI - Thomas Harriot on Combinations
JO - Revue d'histoire des mathématiques
PY - 2005
PB - Société mathématique de France
VL - 11
IS - 1
SP - 57
EP - 88
AB - Thomas Harriot (1560?–1621) is known today as an innovative mathematician and a natural philosopher with wide intellectual horizons. This paper will look at his interest in combinations in three contexts: language (anagrams), natural philosophy (the question of atomism) and mathematics (number theory), in order to assess where to situate him in respect of three current historiographical debates: 1) whether there existed in the late Renaissance two opposed mentalities, the occult and the scientific; 2) whether all mathematical science was clearly demarcated from natural philosophy at that time; and 3) whether all enquiry into nature (including that pursued through mathematics) entailed a consideration of the attributes of God Himself. The paper argues from the case of Harriot that as a man capable of highly abstract mathematical thought, his work on combinations of all kinds is scarcely marked at all by the social, political and religious context from which it arose (which is not to say that his work on alchemy or on practical mathematics is unmarked in the same way), and that he, like many of his contemporaries, was capable of compartmentalising his mind, and of according different modes and degrees of intellectual commitment to different areas of his mental universe.
LA - eng
KW - renaissance; combinations; anagrams; atomism; number theory
UR - http://eudml.org/doc/252029
ER -

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