Subject: [HM] Caratheodory, Klein & Grassman
From: Bill Everdell (Everdell@aol.com)
Date: Sun Mar 19 2000 - 17:12:33 EST
In a message dated 3/18/00, John Conway writes:
<<I am reminded of a story told by Klein, according to which the teaching of
calculus was at one time forbidden in German high schools, because it was
regarded by someone in the Education Ministry as not rigorous. This meant
that textbook authors were forced to avoid the notation and terminology of
the calculus, but they managed to get past this by presenting the standard
arguments in a geometrical version that wasn't identifiable to the Ministry
officials. As a result, the beginning theorems of the calculus were all
attributed to the authors of these textbooks for quite some time!>>
Where can I find this story? It may help me to find out in greater detail
why Grassman's Ausdehnungslehre turns up in so many references to important
books and articles on math, philosophy of math, and number theory toward the
end of the 19thC, including some by Peirce, Frege, Poincare, Peano and
Husserl.
Bill Everdell, St. Ann's, Brooklyn
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