A strange wilderness

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Chikara Sasaki

Covering both the history of mathematics and of philosophy, Descartes's Mathematical Thought reconstructs the intellectual career of Descartes most comprehensively and originally in a global perspective including the history of early modern China and Japan. Especially, it shows what the concept of "mathesis universalis" meant before and during the period of Descartes and how it influenced the young Descartes. In fact, it was the most fundamental mathematical discipline during the seventeenth century, and for Descartes a key notion which may have led to his novel mathematics of algebraic analysis.

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Robert Kaplan and Ellen Kaplan

It takes infinity in its countless guises, as a touchstone for understanding mathematical thinking. It shows us some of the ways that Man grappled with all and reveals mathematics as one of the most exhilarating expressions of human imagination.

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Stephen Clucas

"The career of John Dee has played a significant role in recent historiographical debates about the relationship between magic and science in the early modern period. This collection of interdisciplinary essays, which addresses a wide range of Dee's diverse intellectual activities (including mathematics, astronomy, navigation, astrology, alchemy, cabala and "angel magic"), seeks to enlarge the scope of this debate, as well as presenting new archival and bibliographical discoveries relating to Dee and his collaborators and colleagues"--Dust jacket.

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Amy C. Edmondson

Edmondson clarifies Buckminster Fuller's synergetic geometry in conventional language and mathematics and illuminates his effort to employ synergetics as a strategy for human survival. Updated author Preface and new Foreword by J. Baldwin.