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08813_Field_TCGG T578.txt
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1996-04-10
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development of quantification and applied knowledge in the
first phase of Western industrialism, it will be well to notice the
role of number and mathematics concurrent with the rise of
movable types. Tobias Dantzig, in his Number: The Language of
Science , has provided a cultural history of mathematics which
led Einstein to declare: “This is beyond doubt the most
interesting book on the evolution of mathematics that has ever
fallen into my hands.” The explanation of the rise of Euclidean
sensibility from the phonetic alphabet was given in the early
part of this book. Phonetic letters, the language and mythic
form of Western culture, have the power of translating or
reducing all of our senses into visual and “pictorial” or
“enclosed” space.
More than anybody else, the mathematician is aware of
the arbitrary and fictional character of this continuous,