CFP: Revolutions and Continuity in Greek Mathematics

In 1962, T. Kuhn’s influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
challenged the dominant view of the time that scientific progress is
‘continuous’ and introduced the (rather revolutionary) term ‘revolution’ in
the vocabulary of the historians of science. Considering that the scholars
of ancient Greek mathematics do not (usually) work in literary isolation, it
was only a matter of time before this terminology was introduced into the
field; thus, when S. Unguru’s 1975 paper ‘On the Need to Rewrite the History
of Greek Mathematics’ caused heated debates on the nature of Greek
mathematics, some scholars rushed to support the idea that a revolution took
place. An agreement, however, could not be reached, not only in regard to
the current state of affairs in the discipline, but, perhaps more
importantly, in regard to the usefulness of employing terms like
‘revolutions’ and ‘continuity’ in order to describe the progress of the
field.

While these debates were taking place in the field of the historiography of
Greek mathematics, time did not stand still in the field of its history
either; in fact, the impressive number of recent publications reveals
growing interest for the subject. Historians of Greek mathematics today
apply methodologies, which appear as diverse as the authors themselves;
i.e., in terms of language, culture, educational background and selection of
topics. The aim of this two-day international conference is to bring
together a number of leading scholars of Ancient Greek mathematics in order
to explore the ideas of ‘revolutions’ and ‘continuity’ as they appear
in/disappear from the Greek mathematics. Within this framework, we shall
endeavour, through examining various case-studies, to identify and evaluate
some general characteristics of the methodologies and approaches of the
discipline as practiced today and, additionally, to suggest directions for
future research.

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Confirmed keynote speakers: Professor Sabetai Unguru (Tel-Aviv), Professor
Bernard Vitrac (Paris), Dr Serafina Cuomo (London), Dr Andrew Gregory
(London), Professor Vassilis Karasmanis (Athens), Professor Jean
Christianidis (Athens).

We welcome proposals for papers (abstracts) from academics working in this
field. We are particularly keen to receive proposals from PhD students and
early career researchers. A short abstract (max. 300 words) and a CV should
be sent to the following e-mail address: [email protected] by Friday,
20th of December, 2013. Please notice that the language for abstracts,
papers, and discussions is English.

If you wish to book a place for the conference, please visit:
http://www.bbk.ac.uk/history/about-us/events/revolutions-and-continuity-in-
greek-mathematics. The registration fee for the conference is £45.00
(students: £35.00). It includes reception meal (for two days) and
coffee/tea. Unfortunately, due to limited space, we will only be able to
accept a small number of participants.

Dr Michalis Sialaros
British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Department of History, Classics and Archaeology
Birkbeck College, University of London
[email protected]
[email protected]