VPW: Mathematics and its Culture Through the Optic of J. J. Sylvester

该项目包括完成对19世纪英国数学家詹姆斯·约瑟夫西尔维斯特的一本书的研究。 详细分析的各个方面的西尔维斯特的生活和职业生涯将导致一个丰富的多层看数学和数学文化在十九世纪，一个主题和时代的基本知识遗产。 这项研究对内在主义者和外在主义者的问题和关注的敏感性也将有助于统一C。斯诺称人文主义者和科学家的“两种文化”是对科学在社会中的性质和作用的更大的相互理解。 互动活动包括：教授四分之一，研究生水平的美国科学发展的研讨会; 2参加各种研讨会系列主办的科学的概念基础计划和莫里斯菲什拜因中心的科学和医学史; 3指导研究生在这两个计划;并与上述项目和数学系一起组织为期一天的会议，主题是“数学史：为谁服务？ 应该怎么做？"

The project involves work toward the completion of a booklength study of the nineteenth-century British mathematician, James Joseph Sylvester. The detailed analysis of the various facets of Sylvester's life and career will result in a rich multilayered look at mathematics and mathematical culture in the nineteenth century, a subject and an era fundamental to our intellectual heritage. The study's sensitivity to both internalist and externalist issues and concerns will also serve to unite what C. P. Snow called the "two cultures" of humanists and scientists in a greater mutual understanding of the nature and role of science in society. Interactive activities include: teaching a one-quarter, graduate- level seminar on the development of American science; participating in the various seminar series sponsored by the Program on the Conceptual Foundations of Science and the Morris Fishbein Center for History of Science and Medicine; mentoring graduate students in both programs; and organizing a day-long conference in conjunction with the above-mentioned programs and the Department of Mathematics on "The History of Mathematics: Who Is It For? How Should It Be Done?"