ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Gerrit Mannoury (1867-1956) on the Political Significance of Mathematical Thought

• In Event: New Perspective on the Histories of Mathematics

English Abstract

In this talk, I will present the views of the Dutch Marxist and mathematician Gerrit Mannoury on the political significance of mathematical thought. As professor of mathematics at the University of Amsterdam and figurehead of the Dutch Significs Movement, his philosophical and pedagogical views inspired more than one generation — including the mathematician L.E.J. Brouwer and the logician Evert Willem Beth. Meanwhile, Mannoury was also one of founding members of the Dutch Social-Democratic Labour Party and his political activity included coming to the defense of the Scottsboro Boys in 1931. My objective in this presentation will be to give substance to Mannoury’s statement in his Mathematics, Philosophy and Socialism that ‘my convictions concerning the essence of mathematics, philosophy and socialism … form one whole’ (Mannoury 1917, 3).

The structure of my talk will be as follows. First, I will give an overview of Mannoury’s life. Next, I turn to his lecture On the Significance of Mathematical Logic for Philosophy (1903), which introduces the mathematical logic of Giuseppe Peano to the Dutch public, stressing its use for social life by simplifying, clarifying, and systematizing language and thereby improving our means of communication. After that, I will detail how Mannoury applies this idea to Marxist politics in his On the Social Significance of the Mathematical Form of Thought (1916) and to the teaching of mathematics in his Word and Thought (1931). I will conclude by showing how Mannoury’s views can be of use in reflecting on the historicity of political conceptions of mathematics.

Author

• Ties van Gemert, Tilburg University