SP.2H3 / ESG.SP2H3 Ancient Philosophy and Mathematics

As taught in: Fall 2006

Level:

Undergraduate

Instructors:

Dr. Lee Perlman

Plato and Aristotle.

Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael.  (Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)


Course Features

Course Description

Western philosophy and theoretical mathematics were born together, and the cross-fertilization of ideas in the two disciplines was continuously acknowledged throughout antiquity. In this course, we read works of ancient Greek philosophy and mathematics, and investigate the way in which ideas of definition, reason, argument and proof, rationality and irrationality, number, quality and quantity, truth, and even the idea of an idea were shaped by the interplay of philosophic and mathematical inquiry.

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