> I agree that mathematicians often treat history with contempt, not
> in the sense of explicitly scorning it - indeed the opposite, an
> invoking of 'history' may occur - but in the sense of lack of
> historical rigour, not respecting history of mathematics but using
> convenient episodes, often gossip with little factual basis, to
> spice up mathematics lectures. Eg the maths of Pythagoras, Greek
> failure to solve 'the 3 classic problems', foundation crisis caused
> by discovery of irrationals etc.
>
> >
> > (a) what are (in your personal opinion, naturally) the main
> > reasons?
> The earlier mentioned motive of spicing up what might
> otherwise be dull presentations of mathematics
Undergraduate Mathematics students should find maths interesting.
Otherwise what are they doing studying the subject? Bearing this in
mind why do mathematics lectures need spicing up, surely the maths
should be interesting enough of itself. If students find lectures too
dull without these tit-bits then either the motivation of the student
or the teaching methods need to be brought into question.
At a lower level, ie high school, how wrong is it to use historically
inaccurate stories? E.T. Bell's Galois story may not be 100% true, but
what is the harm if they help a student to become interested in the
subject?
Richard Quick