Demonstrates the profound connections that join mathematics to the history of philosophy.

Calculus Gems, a collection of essays written about mathematicians and mathematics, is a spin-off of two appendices ("Biographical Notes" and "Variety of Additional Topics") found in Simmons' 1985 calculus book. With many additions and some minor adjustments, the material will now be available in a separate softcover volume. The text is suitable as a supplement for a calculus course and/or a history of mathematics course, The overall aim is bound up in the question, "What is mathematics for?" and in Simmons' answer, "To delight the mind and help us understand the world". The essays are independent of one another, allowing the instructor to pick and choose among them. Part A, "Brief Lives", is a biographical history of mathematics from earliest times (Thales, 625–547 BC) through the late 19th century (Weierstrass, 1815–1897) that serves to connect mathematics to the broader intellectual and social history of Western civilization. Part B, "Memorable Mathematics", is a collection of interesting topics from number theory, geometry, and science arranged in an order roughly corresponding to the order of most calculus courses. Some of these sections have a few problems for the student to solve. Students can gain perspective on the mathematical experience and learn some mathematics not contained in the usual courses, and instructors can assign student papers and projects based on the essays. The book teaches by example that mathematics is more than computation. Original illustrations of influential mathematicians in history and their inventions accompany the brief biographies and mathematical discussions.

The first half of Calculus Gems is a biographical history of mathematics from the earliest times to the late nineteenth century. The author shows how science - and mathematics in particular - is something that people do, and not merely a mass of observed data and abstract theory. He demonstrates the profound connections that join mathematics to the history of philosophy and also to the broader intellectual and social history of Western civilization. The second half contains nuggets that Simmons has collected from number theory, geometry, science, etc., which he has used in his mathematics classes, meaning that it can be used as a supplement in a Calculus course, or a History of Mathematics course. The overall aim of this book is to answer the question, 'What is mathematics for?' and with its inevitable answer, 'To delight the mind and help us understand the world.'

Classroom resource material allowing the integration of mathematics history into undergraduate mathematics teaching.

More than three centuries after its creation, calculus remains a dazzling intellectual achievement and the gateway to higher mathematics. This book charts its growth and development by sampling from the work of some of its foremost practitioners, beginning with Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz in the late seventeenth century and continuing to Henri Lebesgue at the dawn of the twentieth. Now with a new preface by the author, this book documents the evolution of calculus from a powerful but logically chaotic subject into one whose foundations are thorough, rigorous, and unflinching—a story of genius triumphing over some of the toughest, subtlest problems imaginable. In touring The Calculus Gallery, we can see how it all came to be.

The story of how calculus came to be, accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of geometry and algebra.

Alain Badiou's Being and Event continues to impact philosophical investigations into the question of Being. By exploring the central role set theory plays in this influential work, Burhanuddin Baki presents the first extended study of Badiou's use of mathematics in Being and Event. Adopting a clear, straightforward approach, Baki gathers together and explains the technical details of the relevant high-level mathematics in Being and Event. He examines Badiou's philosophical framework in close detail, showing exactly how it is 'conditioned' by the technical mathematics. Clarifying the relevant details of Badiou's mathematics, Baki looks at the four core topics Badiou employs from set theory: the formal axiomatic system of ZFC; cardinal and ordinal numbers; Kurt Gödel's concept of constructability; and Cohen's technique of forcing. Baki then rebuilds Badiou's philosophical meditations in relation to their conditioning by the mathematics, paying particular attention to Cohen's forcing, which informs Badiou's analysis of the event. Providing valuable insights into Badiou's philosophy of mathematics, Badiou's Being and Event and the Mathematics of Set Theory offers an excellent commentary and a new reading of Badiou's most complex and important work.