Cultures of Computation and Quantification in the Ancient World

Cultures of Computation and Quantification in the Ancient World PDF Author: Karine Chemla
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030983617
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 764

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Book Description
This book sheds light on the variety of mathematical cultures in general. To do so, it concentrates on cultures of computation and quantification in the ancient world, mainly in ancient China, South Asia, and the Ancient Near East and offers case studies focused on numbers, quantities, and operations, in particular in relation to mathematics as well as administrative and economic activities. The various chapters focus on the different ways and contexts of shaping numbers and quantities, and on the procedures applied to them. The book places special emphasis on the processes of emergence of place-value number systems, evidenced in the three geographical areas under study All these features yield essential elements that will enable historians of mathematics to further capture the diversity of computation practices in their contexts, whereas previous historical approaches have tended to emphasize elements that displayed uniformity within “civilizational” blocks. The book includes editions and translations of texts, some of them published here for the first time, maps, and conventions for editions of ancient texts. It thereby offers primary sources and methodological tools for teaching and learning. The volume is aimed at historians and philosophers of science and mathematics, historians of the ancient worlds, historians of economics, sinologists, indologists, assyriologists, as well as undergraduate, graduate students and teachers in mathematics, the history and philosophy of science and mathematics, and in the history of ancient worlds.

Cultures of Computation and Quantification in the Ancient World

Cultures of Computation and Quantification in the Ancient World PDF Author: Karine Chemla
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030983617
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 764

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book sheds light on the variety of mathematical cultures in general. To do so, it concentrates on cultures of computation and quantification in the ancient world, mainly in ancient China, South Asia, and the Ancient Near East and offers case studies focused on numbers, quantities, and operations, in particular in relation to mathematics as well as administrative and economic activities. The various chapters focus on the different ways and contexts of shaping numbers and quantities, and on the procedures applied to them. The book places special emphasis on the processes of emergence of place-value number systems, evidenced in the three geographical areas under study All these features yield essential elements that will enable historians of mathematics to further capture the diversity of computation practices in their contexts, whereas previous historical approaches have tended to emphasize elements that displayed uniformity within “civilizational” blocks. The book includes editions and translations of texts, some of them published here for the first time, maps, and conventions for editions of ancient texts. It thereby offers primary sources and methodological tools for teaching and learning. The volume is aimed at historians and philosophers of science and mathematics, historians of the ancient worlds, historians of economics, sinologists, indologists, assyriologists, as well as undergraduate, graduate students and teachers in mathematics, the history and philosophy of science and mathematics, and in the history of ancient worlds.

Mathematics, Administrative and Economic Activities in Ancient Worlds

Mathematics, Administrative and Economic Activities in Ancient Worlds PDF Author: Cécile Michel
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030483894
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 560

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Book Description
This book focuses on the ancient Near East, early imperial China, South-East Asia, and medieval Europe, shedding light on mathematical knowledge and practices documented by sources relating to the administrative and economic activities of officials, merchants and other actors. It compares these to mathematical texts produced in related school contexts or reflecting the pursuit of mathematics for its own sake to reveal the diversity of mathematical practices in each of these geographical areas of the ancient world. Based on case studies from various periods and political, economic and social contexts, it explores how, in each part of the world discussed, it is possible to identify and describe the different cultures of quantification and computation as well as their points of contact. The thirteen chapters draw on a wide variety of texts from ancient Near East, China, South-East Asia and medieval Europe, which are analyzed by researchers from various fields, including mathematics, history, philology, archaeology and economics. The book will appeal to historians of science, economists and institutional historians of the ancient and medieval world, and also to Assyriologists, Indologists, Sinologists and experts on medieval Europe.

Shaping the Sciences of the Ancient and Medieval World

Shaping the Sciences of the Ancient and Medieval World PDF Author: Agathe Keller
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031496175
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 582

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Book Description


Mathematical Commentaries in the Ancient World

Mathematical Commentaries in the Ancient World PDF Author: Karine Chemla
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108839576
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 475

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Book Description
Comparative analysis of the techniques and procedures of important mathematical commentaries in five ancient cultures from China to Greece.

Knowledge, Literacy, and Elementary Education in the Old Babylonian Period

Knowledge, Literacy, and Elementary Education in the Old Babylonian Period PDF Author: Robert Middeke-Conlin
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031452267
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
This book examines education as a means to explore knowledge and literacy in the Old Babylonian period. It further employs a new method to research these topics. Contrary to numerous existing studies on the subject, the author examines elementary education globally, that is, in pursuit of Old Babylonian education in its entirety. Typically, education is examined in a piecemeal fashion. It's as if education centered on lexicography alone or mathematics alone. This work encompasses a view about educational content and knowledge systems, as opposed to only specific aspects or branches of them. In doing so, a characterization of institution and society is made possible allowing the work to open new general perspectives on Mesopotamian knowledge, literacy, and education.

Manuscripts and Performances in Religions, Arts, and Sciences

Manuscripts and Performances in Religions, Arts, and Sciences PDF Author: Antonella Brita
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111343553
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 526

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Book Description
Throughout history, manuscripts have been made and used for religious, artistic, and scientific performances, and this practice continues in most cultures today. By focusing on the role manuscripts have in different kinds of performances, this volume contributes to the evolving field of investigating written artefacts and their functions. The collected essays regard manuscripts as points of intersection where textual, material, and performative aspects converge. The contributors analyse manuscripts in their forms and functions as well as their positioning in the performances for which they were made. These aspects unfold across the volume's three sections, examining how manuscripts are (1) used backstage, for preparing and giving instructions for performances; (2) taken onstage, contributing to the enactment of performances; and (3) performers in their own right, producing an effect on the audience. The diversified, interdisciplinary, and innovative methodologies of the included papers carry great potential to expand the traditional approaches of manuscript studies and find application outside the contributors' respective fields.

The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 1, Ancient Science

The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 1, Ancient Science PDF Author: Alexander Jones
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108682626
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This volume in the highly respected Cambridge History of Science series is devoted to the history of science, medicine and mathematics of the Old World in antiquity. Organized by topic and culture, its essays by distinguished scholars offer the most comprehensive and up-to-date history of ancient science currently available. Together, they reveal the diversity of goals, contexts, and accomplishments in the study of nature in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, and India. Intended to provide a balanced and inclusive treatment of the ancient world, contributors consider scientific, medical and mathematical learning in the cultures associated with the ancient world.

The Origin and Significance of Zero

The Origin and Significance of Zero PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004691561
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 787

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Book Description
Zero has been axial in human development, but the origin and discovery of zero has never been satisfactorily addressed by a comprehensive, systematic and above all interdisciplinary research program. In this volume, over 40 international scholars explore zero under four broad themes: history; religion, philosophy & linguistics; arts; and mathematics & the sciences. Some propose that the invention/discovery of zero may have been facilitated by the prior evolution of a sophisticated concept of Nothingness or Emptiness (as it is understood in non-European traditions); and conversely, inhibited by the absence of, or aversion to, such a concept of Nothingness in the West. But not all scholars agree. Join the debate.

Science in the Forest, Science in the Past

Science in the Forest, Science in the Past PDF Author: Geoffrey E. R. Lloyd
Publisher: HAU Books
ISBN: 1912808412
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
This collection brings together leading anthropologists, historians, philosophers, and artificial-intelligence researchers to discuss the sciences and mathematics used in various Eastern, Western, and Indigenous societies, both ancient and contemporary. The authors analyze prevailing assumptions about these societies and propose more faithful, sensitive analyses of their ontological views about reality—a step toward mutual understanding and translatability across cultures and research fields. Science in the Forest, Science in the Past is a pioneering interdisciplinary exploration that will challenge the way readers interested in sciences, mathematics, humanities, social research, computer sciences, and education think about deeply held notions of what constitutes reality, how it is apprehended, and how to investigate it.

Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology

Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology PDF Author: Çiğdem Maner
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004353577
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 717

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Book Description
This volume, Overturning Certainties in Near Eastern Archaeology, is a festschrift dedicated to Professor K. Aslıhan Yener in honor of over four decades of exemplary research, teaching, fieldwork, and publication. The thirty-five chapters presented by her colleagues includes a broad, interdisciplinary range of studies in archaeology, archaeometry, art history, and epigraphy of the Ancient Near East, especially reflecting Prof Yener’s interests in metallurgy, small finds, trade, Anatolia, and the site of Tell Atchana/Alalakh. "The richness of this volume inevitably emerges from those contributions on exchange and technology using philology and/or archaeology." - David A. Warburton, Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations, Northeast Normal University, in: Bibliotheca Orientalis 76,1-2 (2019)