Framing Mathematics: Early Career Workshop on the History and Philosophy of Mathematics
Building on the core idea of the Novembertagung, “Framing Mathematics” aims to foster connections between the widely spread community of early career historians and philosophers of mathematics. Complementing the Novembertagung format, we especially encourage contributions by postdocs and others in the later stages of their early-career path for this workshop. We in particular hope this will be the first in a long series of workshops dedicated to broadening (early-career) conversations on mathematical thought.
Workshop theme:
What is mathematics? From a contemporary perspective, one might be led to believe that mathematics is what mathematicians do. They write down formulas, think in front of blackboards, prove theorems. Mathematics appears to be objective and rigorous, to make true statements, and to deal with specific objects and their properties, or to deduce new meanings from axioms. But who counts as a mathematician in the first place? What counts as mathematical practice and content? And how did we get to this point to begin with? These questions are prompted by the sentiment that at least as of today, mathematics is a consistent and dynamic epistemic system, a field of inquiry that, while being self-containing, continuously extends its reach and reshapes its nature also by application. While contemporary mathematical practices seem rather rigid—with a narrow understanding of what mathematics is—a historical-philosphical analysis, across centuries and linguistic traditions, allows us to appreciate this field as dynamic.
This workshop is dedicated to exploring the various ways in which mathematics was conceived of, practiced and institutionalized across history and within different cultures, acknowledging that “mathematics” itself may be an anachronistic notion. In an explicit hope to bridge disciplinary boundaries, we thus invite contributions that explore the diverse disciplinary framings of mathematics across different periods and contexts—from antiquity to nowadays, with no geographic restrictions to Western traditions.
Keynote speakers:
Arianna Borrelli (Käthe Hamburger Kolleg Aachen)
Karine Chemla (SPHERE–CNRS, Paris)
Barbara Sattler (Bochum University)
This event is sponsored by the BSHM.