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The Mathematics and the Liberal Arts pages are intended to be a resource for student research projects and for teachers interested in using the history of mathematics in their courses. Many pages focus on ethnomathematics and in the connections between mathematics and other disciplines. The notes in these pages are intended as much to evoke ideas as to indicate what the books and articles are about. They are not intended as reviews. However, some items have been reviewed in Mathematical Reviews, published by The American Mathematical Society. When the mathematical review (MR) number and reviewer are known to the author of these pages, they are given as part of the bibliographic citation. Subscribing institutions can access the more recent MR reviews online through MathSciNet.
Bernal, Martin. Response to a paper by R. Palter: "Black Athena, Afro-centrism, and the history of science" [Hist. Sci. 31 (1993), no. 93, part 3, 227--287; MR: 94i:01001]. With comments by Palter. Hist. Sci. 32 (1994), no. 98, part 4, 445--468. (Reviewer: Donald Cook.) SC: 01A16 (01A07 01A20 01A70 01A80), MR: 96c:01005.
An important question in the history of Greek mathematics is how much Greek mathematics was influenced by the mathematics of the Egyptians. Bernal suggests in Black Athena that the influence may be much greater than previously thought. Palter's review article Black Athena, Afro-centrism, and the history of science disagreed with a number of Bernal's points. Bernal responds here to Palter's review, Palter, Robert, Black Athena, Afro-centrism, and the history of science, and then Palter comments on Bernal's response. The response and comment provide an excellent introduction to some of the issues involved in the question of Egyptian influence and also to some of the issues of modern scholarship. It might be useful to have a class read and comment about this article. It is interesting that questions in the history of medicine play a more important role in this controversy than one might at first expect. If the Greeks borrowed heavily from the Egyptians in medicine, it seems more reasonable that they borrowed in the other sciences as well. Closely related topics: Greece and Ancient Egypt.
Palter, Robert. Black Athena, Afro-centrism, and the history of science. Hist. Sci. 31 (1993), no. 93, part 3, 227--287. (Reviewer: Donald Cook.) SC: 01A16 (01A07 01A20 01A70), MR: 94i:01001.
Martin Bernal's Black Athena created a bit of a sensation when it first came out. Robert Palter discusses aspects of Bernal's article and also other arguments of afro-centrists. Palter particularly focuses on the question of whether Egyptian mathematics and science influenced the Greeks. Bernal suggests that the influence may be quite large, and Palter argues that all existing evidence points to the influence being quite small. An important area in Palter's discussions is ancient astronomy, where Palter discusses the general character of Egyptian astronomy, and argues that some claims about it have been vastly exaggerated; much of this discussion focuses on discrediting claims made by John Pappademos. Palter then notes that Peter Tompkins, author of Secrets of the Great Pyramid, seems to suggest that Newton was led by Egyptian science to discover his law of gravitation. About Tompkins, Bernal writes that "it it a tragedy that Tompkins's brilliant and scholarly book has been stripped of its scholarly apparatus". Palter writes "It seems never to have occurred to Bernal that the absence of scholarly apparatus in Tompkins's account of Newton has a very simple explanation: no scholarly evidence exists to support that account." When discussing Egyptian mathematics proper, Palter focuses discusses the general character, and then square roots (or a relative lack of them), the value of pi, the controversial problem in the Moscow papyrus on the surface area of a basket, the Pythagorean theorem (or the relative lack of it, arguments on the special case of involving the diagonal of the square), and the notion (or absence of notion) of an irrational number. Palter attacks claims by Cheikh Anta Diop (see Civilization or barbarism: An authentic anthropology) that Archimedes stole some of his most famous mathematics from the Egyptians. Palter then discusses pyramidology, and some of the claims cited by Bernal that "one can find such relations as pi, phi, the 'golden number' and Pythagoras' triangle from them." The final section, discusses the similarities and differences between Egyptian and Greek medicine. Although Mathematics is not so directly involved here, strong Egyptian influence in Greek medicine could argue for the plausibility of influence of other Egyptian science on Greek science as well. A very interesting paper. Apart from the fact that Palter's article serves as a kind of review of Bernal's book, it is worth reading for its discussions on the nature of Egyptian mathematics and science. Bernal responds to Palter's article in Bernal, Martin, Response to a paper by R. Palter: "Black Athena, Afro-centrism, and the history of science" [Hist. Sci. 31 (1993), no. 93, part 3, 227--287; MR: 94i:01001]. Closely related topics: Ancient Egypt, Greece, Astronomy, Archimedes, The Egyptian Pyramids, and Pythagorean Triangles and Triples.