Ideas and Their Reception

The History of Modern Mathematics, Volume I: Ideas and their Reception documents the proceedings of the Symposium on the History of Modern Mathematics held at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York on June 20-24, 1989. This book is concerned with the emergence and reception of major ideas in fields that range from foundations and set theory, algebra and invariant theory, and number theory to differential geometry, projective and algebraic geometry, line geometry, and transformation groups. Other topics include the theory of reception for the history of mathematics and British synthetic vs. French analytic styles of algebra in the early American Republic. The early geometrical works of Sophus Lie and Felix Klein, background to Gergonne's treatment of duality, and algebraic geometry in the late 19th century are also elaborated. This volume is intended for students and researchers interested in developments in pure mathematics.