SP.2H3 / ESG.SP2H3 Ancient Philosophy and Mathematics, Fall 2006
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail of
The School of Athens, a fresco by Raphael. (Image courtesy of
Wikipedia.)
Highlights of this Course
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.