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Birkhäuser

A Brief History of Mathematics

A Promenade through the Civilizations of Our World

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Tianxin Cai

    1. Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

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  • Explores the origins of mathematics in civilisations around the world
  • Suggests interesting connections about mathematical reasoning among cultures in different ages
  • Expresses mathematical and historical facts in charming and original language, making for a very pleasant read

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About this book

This volume, originally published in China and translated into four other languages, presents a fascinating and unique account of the history of mathematics, divided into eight chronologically organized chapters. Tracing the development of mathematics across disparate regions and peoples, with particular emphasis on the relationship between mathematics and civilization, it examines mathematical sources and inspirations leading from Egypt, Babylon and ancient Greece and expanding to include Chinese, Indian and Arabic mathematics, the European Renaissance and the French revolution up through the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Each chapter explores connections among mathematics and cultural elements of the time and place treated, accompanying the reader in a varied and exciting journey through human civilizations. The book contemplates the intersections of mathematics with other disciplines, including the relationship between modern mathematics and modern art, and the resultingapplications, with the aid of images and photographs, often taken by the author, which further enhance the enjoyment for the reader.

Written for a general audience, this book will be of interest to anyone who's studied mathematics in university or even high school, while also benefiting researchers in mathematics and the humanities. 

Keywords

Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. The Middle East, or the Beginning

    • Tianxin Cai
    Pages 1-25

  3. The Sages of Ancient Greece

    • Tianxin Cai
    Pages 27-60

  4. The Chinese Middle Ages

    • Tianxin Cai
    Pages 61-99

  5. India and Arabia

    • Tianxin Cai
    Pages 101-146

  6. From the Renaissance to the Birth of Calculus

    • Tianxin Cai
    Pages 147-186

  7. The Age of Analysis and the French Revolution

    • Tianxin Cai
    Pages 187-226

  8. Modern Mathematics, Modern Art

    • Tianxin Cai
    Pages 227-269

  9. Abstraction: Mathematics Since the Twentieth Century

    • Tianxin Cai
    Pages 271-329

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 331-344
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Authors and Affiliations

  • Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

    Tianxin Cai

About the author

Cai Tianxin was born in Taizhou, in southeastern China in 1963. He received his doctorate in science in 1987 from Shandong University, and currently serves as an outstanding professor at the School of Mathematics at Zhejiang University. In his capacity as a professor of mathematics, Cai proposed a class of Diophantine equations that was hailed as a “truly original contribution” by the British mathematician and recipient of the Fields Medal Alan Baker. He is also a poet, writer, and photographer, who has published more than forty literary and scholarly works, translated variously into more than twenty languages, including seven works translated into English. For his poetical and literary works, Cai was awarded the Naji Naaman Poetry Prize (Beirut) in 2013, and the Kathak Literary Award(Dakar) in 2019. In 2022, he was selected as an influential writer on Dangdang (the Chinese analogue to Amazon.com).


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