Mathematics, Philosophy, and the "Real World"

Mathematics has spread its influence far beyond the realm of numbers. The concepts and methods of mathematics are crucially important to all of culture and affect the way countless people in all spheres of life look at the world. Consider these cases:

When Leonardo da Vinci planned his mural The Last Supper in the 1490s, he employed geometric perspective to create a uniquely striking composition, centered on the head of Jesus.
When Thomas Jefferson sat down to write the Declaration of Independence in 1776, he composed it on the model of a geometric proof, which is what gives it much of its power as a defense of liberty.
When Albert Einstein developed his theory of general relativity in the early 20th century, he used non-Euclidean geometry to prove that the path of a ray of light, in the presence of a gravitational field, is not straight but curved.

Intriguing examples like these reflect the important dialogue between mathematics and philosophy that has flourished throughout history. Indeed, mathematics has consistently helped determine the course of Western philosophical thought. Views about human nature, religion, truth, space and time, and much more have been shaped and honed by the ideas and practices of this vital scientific field.

Award-winning Professor Judith V. Grabiner shows you how mathematics has shaped human thought in profound and exciting ways in Mathematics, Philosophy, and the "Real World," a 36-lecture series that explores mathematical concepts and practices that can be applied to a fascinating range of areas and experiences.

Believing that mathematics should be accessible to any intellectually aware individual, Professor Grabiner has designed a course that is lively and wide-ranging, with no prerequisites beyond high school math. For those with an interest in mathematics, this course is essential to understanding its invaluable impact on the history of philosophical ideas; for those with an interest in philosophy, Professor Grabiner's course reveals just how indebted the field is to the mathematical world.

Math Meets Philosophy

In a presentation that is clear, delightful, and filled with fascinating case histories, Professor Grabiner focuses on two areas of mathematics that are easily followed by the nonspecialist: probability and statistics, and geometry. These play a pivotal role in the lives of ordinary citizens today, when statistical information is everywhere, from medical data to opinion polls to newspaper graphs; and when the logical rules of a geometric proof are a good approach to making any important decision.

Mathematics, Philosophy, and the "Real World" introduces enough elementary probability and statistics so that you understand the subtleties of the all-important bell curve. Then you are immersed in key theorems of Euclid's Elements of Geometry, the 2,200-year-old work that set the standard for logical argument. Throughout the course, Professor Grabiner shows how these fundamental ideas have had an enormous impact in other fields. Notably, mathematics helped stimulate the development of Western philosophy and it has guided philosophical thought ever since, a role that you investigate through thinkers such as these:

Plato: Flourishing in the 4th century B.C.E., Plato was inspired by geometry to argue that reality resides in a perfect world of Forms accessible only to the intellect—just like the ideal circles, triangles, and other shapes that seem to exist only in the mind.
Descartes: Writing in the 17th century, René Descartes used geometric reasoning in a systematic search for all possible truths. In a famous exercise, he doubted everything until he arrived at an irrefutable fact: "I think, therefore I am."
Kant: A century after Descartes, Immanuel Kant argued that metaphysics was possible by showing its kinship with mathematics. The perfection of Euclidean geometry led him to take for granted that space has to be Euclidean.
Einstein: Working in the early 20th century with a concept of "straight lines" that was different from Euclid's, Albert Einstein showed that gravity is a geometric property of non-Euclidean space, which is an essential idea of his general theory of relativity.

Non-Euclidean Geometry Explained

The discovery of non-Euclidean geometry influenced fields beyond mathematics, laying the foundation for new scientific and philosophical theories and also inspiring works by artists such as the Cubists, the Surrealists, and their successors leading up to today.

Non-Euclidean geometry was a stunning intellectual breakthrough in the 19th century, and you study how three mathematicians, working independently, overthrew the belief that Euclid's geometry was the only possible consistent system for dealing with points, lines, surfaces, and solids. Einstein's theory of relativity was just one of the many ideas to draw on the non-Euclidean insight that parallel lines need not be the way Euclid imagined them.

Professor Grabiner prepares the ground for your exploration of non-Euclidean geometry by going carefully over several of Euclid's proofs so that you understand Euclid's theory of parallel lines at a fundamental level. You even venture into the visually rich world of art and architecture to see how Renaissance masters used Euclidean geometry to map three-dimensional space onto flat surfaces and to design buildings embodying geometrical balance and symmetry. The Euclidean picture of space became internalized to a remarkable extent during and after the Renaissance, with a far-reaching effect on the development of philosophy and science.


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