Long-term history and ephemeral configurations – Catherine Goldstein – ICM2018

Plenary Lecture 12
Long-term history and ephemeral configurations
Catherine Goldstein

Abstract: Mathematical concepts and results have often been given a long history, stretching far back in time. Yet recent work in the history of mathematics has tended to focus on local topics, over a short term-scale, and on the study of ephemeral configurations of mathematicians, theorems or practices. The first part of the paper explains why this change has taken place: a renewed interest in the connections between mathematics and society, an increased attention to the variety of components and aspects of mathematical work, and a critical outlook on historiography itself. The problems of a long-term history are illustrated and tested using a number of episodes in the nineteenth-century history of Hermitian forms, and finally, some open questions are proposed.

ICM 2018 – International Congress of Mathematicians ©
 
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