Mathematics and the Divine: A Historical Study [Hardcover]

Teun Koetsier (Editor), Luc Bergmans (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0444503285 | ISBN-13: 978-0444503282 | Publication Date: January 13, 2005 | Edition: 1

Mathematics and the Divine seem to correspond to diametrically opposed tendencies of the human mind. Does the mathematician not seek what is precisely defined, and do the objects intended by the mystic and the theologian not lie beyond definition? Is mathematics not Man's search for a measure, and isn't the Divine that which is immeasurable ?
The present book shows that the domains of mathematics and the Divine, which may seem so radically separated, have throughout history and across cultures, proved to be intimately related. Religious activities such as the building of temples, the telling of ritual stories or the drawing of enigmatic figures all display distinct mathematical features. Major philosophical systems dealing with the Absolute and theological speculations focussing on our knowledge of the Ultimate have been based on or inspired by mathematics. A series of chapters by an international team of experts highlighting key figures, schools and trains of thought is presented here. Chinese number mysticism, the views of Pythagoras and Plato and their followers, Nicholas of Cusa's theological geometry, Spinozism and intuitionism as a philosophy of mathematics are treated side by side among many other themes in an attempt at creating a global view on the relation of mathematics and Man's quest for the Absolute in the course of history.

· Mathematics and man's quest for the Absolute
· A selective history highlighting key figures, schools and trains of thought
· An international team of historians presenting specific new findings as well as general overviews
· Confronting and uniting otherwise compartmentalized information

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...Mathematics and the Divine makes a valuable contribution to opening up the history of this topic. It should provide welcome encouragement and assistance to others who would like to explore this arena further for themselves."
-in THE MATHEMATICAL ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA

Book Description

• Moments of brilliant synthesis between mathematical rigor and religious openness

Product Details

• Hardcover: 716 pages
• Publisher: Elsevier Science; 1 edition (January 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0444503285
• ISBN-13: 978-0444503282
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,079,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unreadable, July 24, 2011

By 

Viktor Blasjo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mathematics and the Divine: A Historical Study (Hardcover)

The majority of the chapters in this book read like random notes arbitrarily pasted together without any discernible goal other than the creation of a chapter-length chunk of text. Historically, many beautiful things have been written on the connection between mathematics and the divine, but unfortunately these old ideas are obscured by exceedingly poor presentation in this book. The following sentence---which is quite typical in terms of opacity, though extreme with respect to incompetence---illustrates my point:

"For Anatolius, quoted by Ps. Jamblichus, the Number Seven, the only number that is not generated by any of the first numbers except the unity, and the only one that does not generate any other number, is likened to Athena, the virgin motherless goddess." (p. 129)

The basic idea that 7=Athena is very clever indeed, but unfortunately the presentation it receives here is far from divine.

First of all there are elementary editorial shortcomings. For example, we are given no page reference so apparently we must read through Jamblichus's entire book (100 pages of classical Greek) if we want to see the original passage in question. Also, the term "generated" is never defined or used elsewhere, so we have no idea what the sentence even means. It must also be understood that the vague phrase "the first numbers" refers to the first TEN numbers.

But worse still are the blatant mathematical errors which show that the author really has no idea what he is talking about. For in fact "generation" is here intended in the sense of multiplication, which means that almost everything in the sentence above is wrong:
--7 is NOT generated by 1.
--7 is NOT the only number not generated (2, 3 and 5 are not generated either).
--7 is NOT the only number that does not generate others (neither does any of 6 through 10).

Thus if you want to read about the beautiful idea that 7=Athena from an author who is not mathematically incompetent you are better off ignoring this book in favour of classical sources themselves, such as this:

"Since the number 7 neither generates nor is generated by any of the numbers in the decad, they identified it with Athene. For the number 2 generates 4, 3 generates 9, and 6, 4 generates 8, and 5 generates 10, and 4, 6, 8, 9, and 10 are also themselves generated, but 7 neither generates any number nor is generated from any; and so too Athene was motherless and ever-virgin." (Aristotle, fragment 203, not cited in the book under review)