Geometry of Thought

Instructor: Colin Drumm Date & Time: Jan 9, 16, 23, 30 14:00 to 16:30 ET

DESCRIPTION: This course examines the central role that the idea of geometry has played in Western philosophy with the intent of critically examining the legacy of that idea for our thinking today. Since the Greeks, philosophers have often seen geometry as the highest form of knowledge towards which all others should strive, with the insights about simple shapes like triangles consequently serving as an image of thought in general. In this Seminar, we will strive to understand why geometry and the triangle came to serve this role for Western philosophy and what the advantages and limitations of this approach might be. How might recent advances in theories of complexity and computation require and allow us to rethink this basic orientation of the Western philosophical tradition towards geometry, and what other possibilities might there be? Readings will be drawn from major figures in the history of philosophy (Plato, Euclid, Hobbes, Spinoza, Berkeley, Hume, Kant.) We will also visit popular histories of mathematics, and 20th century and contemporary thinkers such as Michel Serres, Benoît Mandelbrot, Stephen Wolfram, Eve Sedgwick, Gilles Chattelet and Catherine Malabou.

IMAGE: Frank Stella, Chocorua IV, 1966