Reviel Netz Livres

This book offers a compelling exploration of pre-modern mathematics, highlighting its historical development and significance. It delves into the cultural and intellectual contexts that shaped mathematical thought before the modern era, revealing how various civilizations contributed to its evolution. Through engaging analysis, it uncovers the connections between mathematics and other disciplines, providing a fresh perspective on its role in shaping human knowledge and understanding throughout history.

This book describes the relationship between science and poetry in the Hellenistic period by analysing the stylistic features of Hellenistic mathematics and then showing how they can be understood within the context of Hellenistic poetry. The result transforms our understanding of the origins of Western mathematics.

The book explores the complexities of the ancient Greek literary canon, challenging the notion of a unified set of timeless values. Reviel Netz posits that the canon consists of contradictory texts, which fostered a culture of open debate crucial to the development of modern civil society. This discourse not only shaped philosophical thought but also laid the groundwork for an autonomous scientific culture, ultimately influencing the scientific revolution and the contemporary world. It is a compelling read for those interested in the ancient world's impact on modernity.

Focusing on the evolution of deductive reasoning in classical Greek mathematics, this book delves into the specific practices that shaped this intellectual milestone. It highlights the significance of lettered diagrams and the structured, formulaic language employed by Greek mathematicians, offering insights into how these methods contributed to the development of mathematical thought.

The book delves into the historical significance of barbed wire as a tool for control and oppression, tracing its evolution from 1874 to 1954. Reviel Netz examines its dual role in managing livestock during the American West's colonization and as a means of confinement in Nazi concentration camps and the Russian Gulag. The narrative highlights how barbed wire transformed the concept of physical control over space from a mere symbol to a tangible instrument of power and suffering.

Drawings and writings by Archimedes, previously thought to have been destroyed, have been uncovered beneath the pages of a 13th-century monk's prayer book. These hidden texts, slowly being retrieved and deciphered by scientists, show that Archimedes' thinking (2,200 years ago) was even ahead of Isaac Newton in the 17th century. Archimedes discovered the value of Pi, he developed the theory of specific gravity and made steps towards the development of calculus. Everything we know about him comes from three manuscripts, two of which have disappeared. The third, currently in the Walters Art Museum, is a palimpsest - the text has been scraped off, the book taken apart and its parchment re-used, in this case as a prayer book. William Noel, the project director, and Reviel Netz, a historian of ancient mathematics, tell the enthralling story of the survival of that prayer book from 1229 to the present, and examine the process of recovering the invaluable text underneath as well as investigating into why that text is so important