Between Mathematics, Logic, and Computing: Writing as the Material Culture of Theory

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• David Dunning (Smithsonian Institution)
• Thursday 01 May 2025, 15:30-16:30
• Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact nobody.

MHMW02 - Modern History of Mathematics: Looking Ahead

In this talk I will present material from my current book project, Writing the Rules of Reason: The Social Life of Notation from Logic to Computing. It is a history of two fundamental transformations in the study of logic: First, logic was reconstructed from a humanistic study of reason to a mathematical science. Second, this new mathematical science was taken as a theoretical foundation for digital computing. I tell these intertwined stories by focusing on writing. How exactly does one write down an abstract logical statement? Before any theoretical construct could be embodied in a machine, it was first embodied on paper. Logicians always depended on inscriptive techniques to give physical form to their ideas, and different authors approached this problem in disparate ways. By centering notations and their communities of users, I show how the most abstract of sciences was rooted in the local milieus around an emerging transnational network of practitioners. Their work in logic was intertwined with local cultures and commitments. As notations proliferated, the growing diversity of symbolic techniques ultimately shaped not only the presentation but also the content of logic. My project builds on literature that has emphasized the importance of writing in the history of math, and calls for even great attention to the activities that record and perform theory on material surfaces. Focusing on writing grounds the history of math in histories of human practice.

This talk is part of the Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All CMS events
• Featured lists
• INI info aggregator
• Isaac Newton Institute Seminar Series
• School of Physical Sciences
• Seminar Room 1, Newton Institute
• bld31

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.