Introduction: The historical interpretation of mathematical texts and the problem of anachronism

Abstract

: I provide a definition of “anachronism” as well as an overview of the different positions concerning anachronism taken by historians of mathematics, since the important debate on the “algebra” of the Baby-lonians and the “geometrical algebra” of Euclid and Apollonius. Should we stress the continuity of past mathematics with the mathematics prac-ticed today, or should we emphasize its difference, namely what makes it a product of a distant, Babylonian or Greek, mathematical culture? The issue of anachronism is a vexed one in historical interpretation, but is particularly thorny when one attempts to historicize a discipline that is, perhaps naively, celebrated for being independent of the context. The overview made available in this chapter provides the reader with information on the historiographical background against which the following chapters have been written.