PhD in history and philosophyof science - Université Paris Cité (2023---)My PhD dissertation
My PhD dissertation pertains to instruments described in Latin texts between the 13th to the 16th century on the topic of eclipse computations. The goal of this research is to think about the notion of instrumented calculation in mathematical disciplines of the quadrivium, and to present a material history of ancient mathematical practices. For this, I am supervised by Agathe Keller in the Sphere laboratory as well as by Matthieu Husson in the Observatoire de Paris.
Doctoral training
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Master degree in history and philosophy of science - Université Paris Cité (2021-2023)Master's thesis: "Astronomie médiévale, des presses humanistes à la période Moderne. Patrimonialisation des tables alphonsines dans la culture des imprimés (1483-1641)."
My Master's thesis, written under the supervision of Matthieu Husson and Sara Confalonieri, pertains to the "Tables of King Alfonso"'s printed editions. These tables were, especially after the 14th century, the main tool Latin-speaking astronomers and astrologers could use to compute planetary positions. My research mainly consisted in showing that people who contributed to the printing of these "Tables of King Alfonso" in Latin did so in a particular economical, political and scientific contexte which lead them to adopt a specific interpretation of the coherence of texts and tables assembled under this title.
This essay was written for the second-year course in history of mathematics supervised by Sara Confalonieri. It deals with two proofs given by Leonardo Fibonacci for the root of a second-order polynomial and compares it with the proof given by Al-Khwārizmī for the same equation some centuries before. My objective through this work was especially to think about the idea of "trans-configurational approach" developped by Marco Panza (and to learn to read Arabic texts)
This essay was written for he second year course in science and philosophy around the Mediterranean Sea, organised by Crstina Cerami and Aurelien Robert, which mainly dealt with the notions of atomism and continuity. My goal was to articulate these two notions around the conception of astronomical motions as a composition of spherical motions, especially in Greek astronomy.
This essay was written as part of the first year course in philosophy of mathematics supervised by Brice Halimi, centered around the notion of generality at the crossing point between philosophy and mathematics. For this paper, I explored Gottfried Leibniz's "mathesis universalis" project to discussed the way in which the philosopher deals with the question of generality, and how he deploys the construction of "generality" through his project.
This essay is focused on the 5th definition of Euclid's Elements book V, from the Greek edition given by Johan Heiberg. It was written for the first-year course of introduction in the history of mathematics lead by Sara Confalonieri.
As part of the first-year physics class lead by Étienne Parizot, I wrote about the development of the "Lagrangian equations" in Joseph-Louis Lagrange's 1788 treaty and in his correspondance.
Undergraduate training - Université Pairs Diderot / Université Paris Cité (2015-2021)Bachelor degree in mathematics
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Bachelor degree in compute sciences (second year)
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Seminars I follow
History of Astronomical Diagrams
(Syrte)
Tuesday, February 27, 2024 (15:00-17:00)
Stefan Zieme, What is a diagram
Abstract
Reading and discussion from:
Latour, Bruno. “Visualisation and Cognition: Drawing Things Together.” In H. Kuklick (editor) Knowledge and Society Studies in the Sociology of Culture Past and Present, Jai Press vol. 6 (1986) pp. 1-40.
Marr, Alexander. “Ingenuity in Nuremberg: Dürer and Stabius’s Instrument Prints”, The Art Bulletin, 100:3 (2018): 48-79, https://doi.org/10.1080/00043079.2018.1429745
Main ideas feeding my thoughts
Bruno Latour presents the concept of "inscription" as being a specific characteristic of "modern scientific culture".
He describes inscriptions as being (1) mobile, (2) immutable and (3) flat things, (4) whose scale can be modified, (5) which is reproducible, (6) recombinable, (7) superimposable and "able to stand for a real world object", which (8) can be integrated in a text and (10) mergeable and operational with geometry.
Histoire et philosophie de mathématiques
(Sphere)
Histoire des sciences, histoire du texte
(Sphere)
Thursday, February 8, 2024 (09:30-09:46)
Erika Luciano, The archive(-s) of the Formulario di Mathematica: logics and practices of a collective organization and reorganization of sources
Abstract
The encyclopaedic treatise /Formulatio di Matematica/ is usually considered the manifesto of the School of Peano. Published from 1894 to 1908, its five volumes constitute a publication that escapes the common bibliographic classifications: they are not reprints, because the discussion becomes increasingly extensive; they are not sequels, because the text restarts each time; and they are not subsequent editions, because sometimes "temporary editorial demands made it necessary to highlight the latest results, without reproducting some fundamental contents, considered classic by that time".
In its last version, the /Formulario/ included over 5000 propositions written in ideographic language, accompanied with historical annotations and bibliographic references.
The publication of these texts asked Peano and his protégés to do a demanding and continuing work of organization and reorganization of their archives. In this paper, we will analyze the collective activity of classification, ordering, indexing, composition and decomposition of archive materials performed within the School of Peano in relation to the construction of the /Formulario di Matematica/ through the dozen years of its publication.
Main ideas feeding my thoughts
Au travers du cas de Peano, la communication introduisait la notion d'«école de recherche», définie notamment par Castelnuovo en 1930 ("a scientific school [is] a union or family of people collaborating in developing an pursuing a well-defined project of research") et par Rowe en 2002 ("a group led normally by only one mathematician, localized within a single institutional setting and which counts on a significan supply of advanced students").
Séminaire général
(Sphere)
Bimenstrual seminar where membres of the laboratory exchange on their researchs.
Friday, March 1, 2024 (12:00-14:00)
Florence Bretelle, La médecine en Chine depuis un terrain, des acteurs et des sources: portrait d'une réalité sociale et épistémique complexe abordée depuis l'angle de la variole (XVII-XIX)
Abstract
Main ideas feeding my thoughts
Friday, March 1, 2024 (12:00-14:00)
Jimmy Degroote, L'applicabilité des mathématiques: quelques enjeux philosophiques contemporains
Abstract
Main ideas feeding my thoughts
Mathématiques 19e-21e
(Sphere)
Friday, March 1, 2024 (14:00-17:30)
Marie-José Durand-Richard, Herschel and Babbage 1812-1820 : Towards a new calculus on functions : how and why ?
Abstract
La première génération du réseau des algébristes anglais – qui a conduit à l'Algèbre Symbolique – est bien connue pour avoir réussi à imposer la notation différentielle du calcul infinitésimal à Cambridge, en lieu et place de la notation newtonienne, essentiellement depuis leur traduction du Traité Elémentaire du Calcul Différentiel et du Calcul Intégral (1802) de Sylvestre-François Lacroix (1765-1843).
