Infinitesimal : how a dangerous mathematical theory shaped the modern world

Bibliographic Information

Infinitesimal : how a dangerous mathematical theory shaped the modern world

Amir Alexander

Oneworld, 2015, c2014

  • : pbk

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A Oneworld book

Available at  / 3 libraries

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Note

Originally published: 2014

Includes bibliographical references and index

"A Oneworld book"--T.p. verso

Description and Table of Contents

Description

On August 10, 1632, five leading Jesuits convened in a sombre Roman palazzo to pass judgment on a simple idea: that a continuous line is composed of distinct and limitlessly tiny parts. The doctrine would become the foundation of calculus, but on that fateful day the judges ruled that it was forbidden. With the stroke of a pen they set off a war for the soul of the modern world. Amir Alexander takes us from the bloody religious strife of the sixteenth century to the battlefields of the English civil war and the fierce confrontations between leading thinkers like Galileo and Hobbes. The legitimacy of popes and kings, as well as our modern beliefs in human liberty and progressive science, hung in the balance; the answer hinged on the infinitesimal. Pulsing with drama and excitement, Infinitesimal will forever change the way you look at a simple line.

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