The Infinite (CLA 199Q, MTH 199Q)

Provisional Syllabus

1. Sep. 1, 99 Introduction: ancient and modern valuation, Pythagorean Table of Opposites, Anaximander
2. Sep. 8, 99 Parmenides, Truth
3. Sep. 15, 99 Plato, Philebus
4. Sep. 22, 99 Aristotle, Physics
5. Sep. 29, 99 Pythagorean Geometry; Number Theory and Zeno's Paradoxes I
6. Oct. 13, 99 Zeno's Paradoxes II, Eudoxus: Theory of Proportions, Method of exhaustion
7. Oct. 20, 99 Kabbalah
8. Oct. 27, 99 Aquinas, Summa Theologica; Cusanus, Vision of God
9. Nov. 3, 99 Early Moderns (Cusanus, On Learned Ignorance, etc.), Bruno, On the Infinite Unvierse, etc., Spinoza, Letter on the Infinite
10. Nov. 10, 99 Modern Math I (Galilieo, Leibniz, Newton, Berkeley)
11. Nov. 17, 99 Modern Math II (Cauchy, Weierstrauss)
12. Dec. 1, 99 Modern Math III (Hilbert, Bouwer)
Extra class Cantor, Transfinite Numbers
13. Dec. 8. Poetic views (Bruno, Leopardi, Blake, Wordsworth, Borges); passages from Homer, Over-view

Notes

  1. The Syllabus may be somewhat altered as we proceed.
  2. Information on term paper, office hours and other details will be given later.

Instructors

Prof. Al Geier 461.4343 algrr@aol.com
Prof. Steve Gonek 275.3419 (work) 271.5359 (home) gonek@math.rochester.edu

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