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in Bayreuth (2011)
Phil.
Dept. Faculty)
Teaching Interests
Research Interests
Educational Background
Schedule
Office Hours
On Greek Mathematics and Philosophy of Mathematics
Vignettes
of Ancient Mathematics
Euclid in Nürnberg
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College of Arts & letters
Henry Mendell
Prof.
Office: E&T 422
Phone: (323) 343-4178
<>FAX: (323) 343-4193
Email: hmendell@calstatela.edu (please note that this address has changed as of April 2006)
TEACHING INTERESTS
I mostly teach ancient philosophy, especially scientific issues in 5th and 4th cent. BCE philosophy. However, I also teach annually
a course in the history of the philosophy of science, which focuses on astronomy
and mathematics. This course uses lots of graphics to illustrate Greek
mathematics and astronomy, much on my website, and spread sheets to illustrate Babylonian astronomy.
I enjoy teaching logic.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My principal areas of interest at present include ancient Greek philosophy
(especially Aristotle and Plato), ancient Greek mathematics, ancient astronomy
(especially Eudoxus). These focus on the relation between philosophical
issues in ancient treatments of scientific problems and how ancient philosophers
responded to those issues. Current projects involve Aristotle's Physics, Aristotelian
logic, decision theorems in Aristotle, conceptions of number in the 4th and 3rd century B.C.E, treatments of quantitative relations in Greek mathematics, infinitary
arguments in Greek mathematics, the relation between first principles
in Aristotle and in Greek mathematics, sources for Eudoxus, 4th cent.
B.C.E. conceptions of astronomy, and Plato's analogy of the Divided Line,
and his Phaedo.
I continue to develop interesting ways of presenting ancient mathematics and astronommy, for which visit Vignettes
of Ancient Mathematics.
Kvetch
As an early user of Macs and Word (since 1985), I would like to protest the policies of both corporations. Both Microsoft and Apple inhibit scholars or anyone from having access to a long history of their work. It is two decades since I was last able to read the original files for my doctoral dissertation with the original pagination, etc. Now, I can only with difficulty access the thousands of files composed in Word 4.0 and 5.1, and even then much of what I see is garbled. I dread upgrading to the newest Mac System when these files will become just unreadable. Elegant DLL's I developed for presenting Babylonian mathematics in Excel spread sheets became unusable when Apple upgraded to System X and un-recompilable when Microsoft blocked external DLL's. I mention this, as I am sure that others have had similar ugly experiences. Do these corporations think that people are only interested last week's work? As a user of Apple and Office for 28 years, I used to admire Apple and cherish Office. Microsoft and Apple have both become either callous and disgusting or just ignorant and arrogant!
Representative Professional Activities
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Date
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Recent Publications
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| 2009 |
“Plato by the Numbers.” in Logos and Language: Essays in Honour of Julius Moravacsik. Ed. by Dagfinn Føllesdal and John Woods. London: College Publications, 2009, pp. 141-76. Access article
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| 2007 |
"Two Traces of Two-Step Eudoxan Proportion Theory in Aristotle: A Tale of Definitions in Aristotle, With a Moral," Archive for History of the Exact Sciences, 61 (2007): 3-37.
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2005 |
"Putting Aristotle's Physics in its place: a discussion
of B. Morison, On Location," Oxford Studies in Ancient
Philosophy, 25 (Summer 2005), 327-66. |
| 2001 |
Eloge for Wilbur Knorr. Isis 92 (2001): 339-343. |
| 2001 |
with Pat Suppes and Julius Moravcsik (eds.). Ancient and Medieval
Traditions in the Exact Sciences: Essays in Memory of Wilbur Knorr
(Stanford: CSLI (distr. University of Chicago Press), 2001. |
| 2001 |
"The Trouble with Eudoxus." In previous, 59-138. |
| 1998 |
"Making Sense of Aristotelian Demonstration." Oxford Studies
in Ancient Philosophy, 16 (1998), 160-225. Access article |
| 1998 |
"Reflections on Eudoxus, Callippus and their Curves: Hippopedes
and Callippopedes". Centauru, vol. 40, nr. 3-4 (1998), 177-275. |
| Date |
Some Recent and Future Talks and Activities
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| Upcoming in May and June, 2015 |
Seminar on Aristotle's Physics and workshop on Physics VIII, Cohn Institute, Tel Aviv University |
| 28-29 Feb., 2015 |
Organizer: Workshop on Aristotle, UCLA |
| 20-23 Sept., 2014 |
Discussion of Aristotle, Metaphysics H 3, LMU-Berkeley: “Aristotle, Metaphysics VIII” |
| 10-12 July, 2014 |
Discussion of Apollonius, Conics II. Workshop: Aspects of Apollonius’ Conic Sections, Topoi Excellence Cluster, Humboldt University, Berlin |
| 10-11 May, 2014 |
“From Greek numerals to number theory: a suggestion.” Revolutions and Continuity in Greek Mathematics, Birbeck College, University of London |
| 4-7 March, 2014 |
“Les nombres homonymes et autres curiosités des Éléments d'Euclide.” Colloque «Pratiques algorithmiques dans les mathématiques pré-algébriques,» CNRS, Paris |
| 29-30 March, 2014 |
Discussion on Metaphysics 9.6. Conference: The Activity of Being. Bay Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy |
21-22 Feb., 2014 |
Organizer: Workshop on Aristotle, UCLA
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| 29 Jan., 2014 |
The Structure of Aristotle's Physics," Central European University, Budapest |
| 28 Jan., 2014 |
"Visualizations of Ancient Cosmological Models," Digital Classicist Berlin Seminar Seriees |
| 7-11 Oct 2013 |
“Concrete and Abstract in Archimedes’ Mechanics,” Körper, 4th Kongress der Gesellschaft für antike Philosophie |
| 6-9 Aug. 2013 |
Aristotle, An. Post. II 10-12, Workshop on Aristotle between Sense-Perception and Knowledge, University of California, Berkeley |
| 20 May, 2013 |
"Aristotle's Dynamics in Physics VII 5: The Importance of Being Conditional," Power Structuralism Invited Speaker Series, Oxford University |
| 27 March 2013 |
“The Measure of Iota and some other Things”. Pacific APA (Symposium on Met. I) |
| 12-16 Dec 2012 |
"The Boys from Cyzicus: what did they do?” Confereence: Reflections on Plato's Academy, Athens Greece
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| 26-30 Nov.. 2012 |
"Two definitions of the Continuous," Conference, Les mathématiques grecques de Pythagore à Eudoxe, Institut Henri Poincare, Paris |
| 26-30 Nov. 2012 |
"Multitudes of Numbers in Aristotle," Conference, Les mathématiques grecques de Pythagore à Eudoxe" Institute Jussieu, Paris |
| 26-30 Aug. 2012 |
“What's location got to do with it? Some issue in Greek mathematics,” Conference on Space, Geometry and the Imagination from Antiquity to the Modern Age, Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftgeschicte
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9-10 June 2012 |
“Aristotle's Dynamics: the Importance of Being Conditional” Workshop on Aristotle's Physics, Humboldt University |
EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Ph.D. Phil. 1986
 Stanford University
Stanford, Cal.
B.A. Phil. 1974
St. John's College
Cambridge, U.K.
A.B. Classics & Phil. 1971
Cornell University
Ithaca, N.Y.
SCHEDULE 2014-5: (on leave from CSULA; Winter Schedule at UCLA)
| Course |
Sect. No. |
Title |
Units |
Day & Time |
Room |
| Phil 128A |
1
|
Philosophy of Math: History of Proof |
4
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MW 2:00 |
Bunche 3150 |
OFFICE HOURS: Winter 2015: Dodd Hall 342 (UCLA)
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