[SIGCIS-Members] Material and embodied practices of people doing mathematics, symbolic logic, and calculation

Fri Mar 5 15:36:03 PST 2021

Hi everyone,

What a fascinating thread! Adding two references that focus on physical modelling and drawing practices in mathematics:

Steingart, Alma 2015. “Inside: Out” Grey Room 59(2): 44-77.
PDF: https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/GREY_a_00169

Samuel, Nina (ed.) 2012. The Islands of Benoît Mandelbrot: Fractals, Chaos, and the Materiality of Thinking. New Haven: Bard Center.
https://store.bgc.bard.edu/the-islands-of-benoit-mandelbrot-fractals-chaos-and-the-materiality-of-thinking-edited-by-nina-samuel/

Also, Jacques Hadamard’s classic The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field might be relevant?

All best,
Theodora

--
Theodora Vardouli
Assistant Professor | Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture | McGill University
815 Sherbrooke Street West, Montréal Québec, Canada H3A 0C2 | 514.398.6709

@McGill<https://www.mcgill.ca/architecture/people-0/faculty/vardouli> | openarchitectures.com<http://openarchitectures.com/>
Computer Architectures: Constructing the Common Ground<https://www.crcpress.com/Computer-Architectures-Constructing-the-Common-Ground/Vardouli-Touloumi/p/book/9780815396529>

On Mar 5, 2021, at 5:21 PM, Julie Cohn <cohnconnor at comcast.net<mailto:cohnconnor at comcast.net>> wrote:

For reasons unrelated to the inquiry at the start of this email chain, I listened to a podcast called “Drinks with the Deal” that featured Will Deringer and a discussion of his book, Calculated Values, which “traces how numbers first gained widespread authority” in 17th century Great Britain (from MIT Press website). I have not read any of Will Deringer’s work, but it may be of interest.

-Julie

Julie Cohn, Ph.D.

Non-Resident Scholar, Center for Energy Studies
Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, and
Research Historian, Center for Public History
University of Houston

email: cohnconnor at gmail.com<mailto:cohnconnor at gmail.com>
cell: 713.516.0849

Author: The Grid: Biography of an American Technology (MIT Press, 2017)
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/grid

On Mar 3, 2021, at 12:06 PM, Schoenstein, Tasha <tschoenstein at g.harvard.edu<mailto:tschoenstein at g.harvard.edu>> wrote:

Hi all,

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, the request made me think of Andrew Warwick, Masters of Theory: Cambridge and the Rise of Mathematical Physics (University of Chicago Press, 2003). I feel like most of this book thinks about embodied and material mathematical practices.

Cheers,
Tasha
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tasha Schoenstein
tschoenstein at g.harvard.edu<mailto:tschoenstein at g.harvard.edu>
Ph.D. Candidate, History of Science, Harvard University
S.M. Candidate, Computer Science, Harvard University
S.B. Mathematics with Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

On Wed, Mar 3, 2021 at 12:54 PM Dr. Joy Lisi Rankin <drjoy at joyrankin.com<mailto:drjoy at joyrankin.com>> wrote:
Hello David and all,

Adding my recommendation for: Deborah Harkness, The Jewel House: Elizabethan London and the Scientific Revolution (New Haven: Yale UP, 2007). The whole book is excellent; in terms of your particular interest, David, chapter three addresses mathematics and instrumentation, and chapter five addresses “reading, writing, and doing science” through close reading of prison notebooks.

Regards,
Joy

--
Joy Lisi Rankin, PhD | she/her/hers
Research Lead for the Gender, Race, and Power in AI Program
AI Now Institute<http://www.ainowinstitute.org/> @ NYU<https://www.nyu.edu/>
Author: A People's History of Computing in the US<https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674970977>
Recently: "Bodies into Bits<https://logicmag.io/care/bodies-into-bits/>" and "Whitewashing Tech<https://medium.com/@AINowInstitute/whitewashing-tech-why-the-erasures-of-the-past-matter-today-166d0d5e2789>"

On March 3, 2021 at 10:13:38 AM, Leif Weatherby (leif.weatherby at nyu.edu<mailto:leif.weatherby at nyu.edu>) wrote:

Hi All,
I'd just add in the vein of Brian's and Sam's suggestions that Brian Rotman's work (especially Mathematics as Sign<https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=415>) carves out a position distinct from formalism, intuitionism, and Platonism, which he calls the "semiotic" account of mathematics, and which is explicitly about "scratching notes on paper" and other material practices of doing math. If people know of follow-up work to his, I would be very interested, I have found him very compelling to read.
Best,
Leif

On Wed, Mar 3, 2021 at 10:10 AM Sam Kellogg <samkellogg at gmail.com<mailto:samkellogg at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hello David,

I highly recommend Juliette Kennedy's work on mathematical drawing on this point—this essay in particular discusses drafting, scratch notes, drawing at the blackboard, etc.

Kennedy, Juliette. “Notes on the Syntax and Semantics Distinction, or Three Moments in the Life of the Mathematical Drawing.” In What Is a Mathematical Concept?, edited by Alf Coles, Elizabeth de Freitas, and Nathalie Sinclair, 55–75. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2017. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/what-is-a-mathematical-concept/notes-on-the-syntax-and-semantics-distinction-or-three-moments-in-the-life-of-the-mathematical-drawing/95FC242F34EBC88DC3D6749A2E4A6F31<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.cambridge.org_core_books_what-2Dis-2Da-2Dmathematical-2Dconcept_notes-2Don-2Dthe-2Dsyntax-2Dand-2Dsemantics-2Ddistinction-2Dor-2Dthree-2Dmoments-2Din-2Dthe-2Dlife-2Dof-2Dthe-2Dmathematical-2Ddrawing_95FC242F34EBC88DC3D6749A2E4A6F31&d=DwMFaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=bMQrB1JqPGH3QuzFgKxGwWv8_wlytMz_q_xKdjxXCE0&m=al_Rx7gVpZratUSSzCRMtEW8wkj9M8QRpJi-HdR4YSU&s=ZvIooA9RYnJYitjMQRpEQ0xerf1pt3Dm_bRPhEuDniE&e=>.

Best,
Sam

On Wed, Mar 3, 2021 at 8:46 AM David C. Brock <dcb at dcbrock.net<mailto:dcb at dcbrock.net>> wrote:
Dear All,

I’m wondering if you could point me to some references that treat the material and embodied practices — like writing, reading, publishing, lecturing — of people doing mathematics, symbolic logic, and calculation.

I’m interested particularly in the era *before* the widespread use of electronic computers.

Best wishes,

David
+++++++++++++++
David C. Brock
dcb at dcbrock.net<mailto:dcb at dcbrock.net>
40 Russell Street, Greenfield, MA 01301
Mobile: 413-522-3578
Skype: dcbrock
Twitter: @dcbrock
Pronouns: he, him, his

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--
Sam P. Kellogg
he/him // MCC, NYU<http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/mcc/> // samkellogg.com<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__samkellogg.com&d=DwMFaQ&c=slrrB7dE8n7gBJbeO0g-IQ&r=bMQrB1JqPGH3QuzFgKxGwWv8_wlytMz_q_xKdjxXCE0&m=al_Rx7gVpZratUSSzCRMtEW8wkj9M8QRpJi-HdR4YSU&s=btnPYlFtpcF38Bp0oSIXcRL9BA2Ivvcte7jdg18JoU4&e=>
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--
Leif Weatherby
Associate Professor
Department of German
New York University

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