Hermann Günther Graßmann (1809-1877): Visionary Mathematician, Scientist and Neohumanist Scholar

Hermann G. Grasmann (1809-1877) - mathematician, physicist, linguist, educator - was trained in the universalist scientific spirit of nineteenth-century neohumanism. That neohumanism postulated the ideal unity and complementarity of language and mathematics. Grasmann pursued the vision of that ideal unity, and upon it he rested his seminal achievements. While his writings on linguistics and physics enjoyed immediate influence, decades were to pass before mathematicians recognized the full power of his major work, the Lineale Ausdehnungslehre of 1844, to reshape the foundations of modern mathematics. In this volume specialists from several disciplines present a comprehensive analysis of Grasmann's thought, its historical context and emergence, its reception, and its continuing influence on many branches of learning. The book addresses a general public in mathematics, physics, and linguistics, including graduate students in these fields, as well as historians of these disciplines.