Thinkers, Discoverers, and Problem Solvers

Girolamo Cardano ( Public Domain)

Part of the FOCUS program.

Renaissance mathematicians theorized the probability of winning games of chance, fought duels over the solution of algebraic equations, and discovered imaginary numbers. Their discoveries, in turn, sparked the imagination of other scientists, artists, travelers, as well as of political theorists and writers—but does measuring and quantifying the world spark or suppress the imagination? Is mathematical discovery essential for a sense of wonder at the universe or does it destroy the poetry of the unknown? And how different is science from magic and alchemy?

Taking up these questions, this class explores how Renaissance men and women interpreted the new discoveries in algebra, geometry, and probability. We will begin by reading, in translation, some of the original mathematical works that broke new ground in these fields and learn how to work with pre-modern mathematical conventions. The main concern of the course will be with how these discoveries influenced thinkers as different as William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, and Margaret Cavendish as they wrote about politics, religion, and literature.

 Required Books:

• Shakespeare, Othello

• Christopher Marlowe, Doctor Faustus

• Girolamo Cardano: The Book on Games of Chance

• Columbus, The Four Voyages

• Bartolomé de Las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies

Selections from the following are available on course management website:

• Galileo, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems;

• John Milton, Paradise Lost;

• John Falconer, Cryptomensys patefact

• Charles I’s letter of April 4th 1646.