Amir did not mention a word about the most virulent exposition of criminality by the Catholic Church in its systematic program in the repression of Human reasoning, i.e its burning alive of the great scientist Giordano Bruno. the repression of science and of free thinkers in all classes is unforgivable. However his mealy mouth objectivity regarding what are crimes in any historical context i.e. I am grateful that he did spend a little time on Wallace, by far the only part of this book that is worth anything. If Amir had spent the 80% book his wasted politely describing the repression of Infinitesimal instead on a purely mathematical discourse he could have achieved his thesis of showing how the Infinitesimal impacted the modern World positively. He went into a nauseating detail into the diseased mind of Thomas Hobbes, a second rate philosopher and first order misanthrope. Not that this flavor of authoritarianism was NOT the only peddled by Amir. Hitler wrote favourably of their influence on architecture and on himself in Mein Kampf. It is no coincidence that the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels had been a student of the Jesuits, and Heinrich Himmler was impressed by the Order's organisational structure. Not a word condemning their crimes both in the sciences and the masses they grievously injured. Neither the Catholic Church or the Anglican English King had any responsibility for the consequential revolutionary era, according to the Amir! Amir, which means King in Hebrew, pours almost half the book in the historical reconstruction of one of the most authoritarian criminal organizations in Human history the Jesuits. The English Revolution and Protestant reformation are just violent and dangerous interruptions of existing idyllic paradises. The author has nothing nice to say about Levelers, Diggers, etc. Very little math but a lot right wing politics The legitimacy of popes and kings, as well as our beliefs in human liberty and progressive science, were at stake - the soul of the modern world hinged on the infinitesimal. In Italy, the defeat of the infinitely small signaled an end to that land’s reign as the cultural heart of Europe, and in England, the triumph of infinitesimals helped launch the island nation on a course that would make it the world’s first modern state.įrom the imperial cities of Germany to the green hills of Surrey, from the papal palace in Rome to the halls of the Royal Society of London, Alexander demonstrates how a disagreement over a mathematical concept became a contest over the heavens and the Earth. The story takes us from the bloody battlefields of Europe’s religious wars and the English Civil War and into the lives of the greatest mathematicians and philosophers of the day, including Galileo and Isaac Newton, Cardinal Bellarmine and Thomas Hobbes, and Christopher Clavius and John Wallis. As Alexander reveals, it wasn’t long before the two camps set off on a war that pitted Europe’s forces of hierarchy and order against those of pluralism and change. Philosophers, scientists, and mathematicians across Europe embraced infinitesimals as the key to scientific progress, freedom of thought, and a more tolerant society. Indeed, not everyone agreed with the Jesuits. In Infinitesimal, the award-winning historian Amir Alexander exposes the deep-seated reasons behind the rulings of the Jesuits and shows how the doctrine persisted, becoming the foundation of calculus and much of modern mathematics and technology. If infinitesimals were ever accepted, the Jesuits feared, the entire world would be plunged into chaos. The concept was deemed dangerous and subversive, a threat to the belief that the world was an orderly place, governed by a strict and unchanging set of rules. With the stroke of a pen the Jesuit fathers banned the doctrine of infinitesimals, announcing that it could never be taught or even mentioned. On August 10, 1632, five men in flowing black robes convened in a somber Roman palazzo to pass judgment on a deceptively simple proposition: that a continuous line is composed of distinct and infinitely tiny parts. Pulsing with drama and excitement, Infinitesimal celebrates the spirit of discovery, innovation, and intellectual achievement - and it will forever change the way you look at a simple line.
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