Tony Mann

History of mathematics and history of science.

This essay argues that the diversity of the history of mathematics community in the United Kingdom has influenced the development of the subject and is a significant factor behind the different concerns often evident in work on the history of mathematics when compared with that of historians of science. The heterogeneous nature of the community, which includes many who are not specialist historians, and the limited opportunities for academic careers open to practitioners have had a profound effect on the discipline, leading to a focus on elite mathematics and great mathematicians. More recently, reflecting earlier developments in the history of science, an increased interest in the context and culture of the practice of mathematics has become evident.

From Sylvia Plath's The bell jar to the Bad Sex Award: a partial account of the uses of mathematics in fiction

This paper is based on the authors introduction to the BSHM meeting on ‘Mathematics and fiction’ held at Rewley House, Oxford, in May 2009.

Mathematics and Mathematical Cultures in Fiction: The Case of Catherine Shaw

This paper will present a selective overview of some uses of mathematics in fiction, expanding and updating Mann (2010), before considering the rather unusual case of Catherine Shaw’s detective novels, set in the late Victorian mathematical community.

The History of the History of Mathematics: Case Studies for the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

tian religion cannot be ignored. Ossa-Richardson argues that Fontenelle’s positions on the oracles were, at least in part, a logical consequence of his disdain for historiography based on testimony (that is why he rejected all the sources that accounted for the reality of the oracles). This is certainly true, but OssaRichardson’s reconstruction leaves out of the picture the issue of probability, which is central. According to Fontenelle, relying on testimony is to adhere to certain beliefs without using reason to examine the facts: no real knowledge is based on testimony, and historiography can be a valuable science only if it implies a critical inquiry. It is precisely to address this issue that Fontenelle introduces probability as the only criterion to determine both the likeliness of facts and the reliability of testimonies. In his perspective, without probability there is no history, only fables. The link between the criticism of testimony and the concept of probability is therefore a key factor to understand Fontenelle’s view on historiography. The sixth and last chapter is an overview of the developments of the debate on the oracles in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The interest in the oracles during these years was progressively decreasing. This leads the author to the conclusion of the book. The presence of the oracles in Western thought has been textual, rather than historical or archaeological. That is to say that they were studied and discussed in order to know not what they really were (eventually this did not even matter), but what they meant. The oracles had something to say about men, they were a reflection of the self. Once their mysteries were unveiled and their role in politics and in society was carefully examined, they did not have anything left to offer. The Pythia became silent once and for all.

From prehistoric balls to contemporary fiction: what the history of mathematics has done for me

This article is based on the Presidential address delivered by Tony Mann to the autumn meeting of the BSHM in October 2011.