ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The Importance of Passion: Quido Vetter and his role in cultivating histories of mathematics and the exact sciences

• In Event: What Is the History of Science? Part 1

English Abstract

History of mathematics was first, and until the second half of the 20th century almost exclusively, written by mathematicians. The Prague mathematician, historian of mathematics, and didactician Quido Vetter (1881-1960) stands out through his recognition, apparent through his habilitation thesis completed in 1917, that history of mathematics is more than a collection of historical facts about mathematics and mathematicians. He spent the two interbellum decades lecturing on various topics from history of mathematics to future teachers of mathematics as well as establishing history of mathematics (and the exact and natural sciences) as a discipline in Czechoslovakia and, through his activities in international societies, also abroad. In 1937, he closed his term as the president of the International Academy of the History of Science through organising its fourth International Congress of the History of Science in Prague. Vetter was also an active organiser of researchers not only of the history of mathematics, but also of the exact and natural sciences. In Czechoslovakia, he established platforms for researchers in the history of science within larger scientific bodies (Masaryk Academy of Labour, Czechoslovak National Research Council). His international network was impressive, as he was a member of Comité belge d’histoire des sciences (Brussels), Commission d’histoire des sciences at the Centre de synthèse (Paris), and an honorary member of Unio nationalis et internationalis totius energiae renovatricis (Rio de Janeiro). His case provides an opportunity to explore what it meant to cultivate and promote history of science in the turbulent times of the interbellum.

Author

• Helena Durnová, Masaryk University