Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Lewis Carroll Logician and Mathematician

"Mathematical and Logical Works. Dodgson's considerable output of books and pamphlets of a mathematical and, to a lesser degree, of a logical nature shows that he was both a conscientious senior student of Christ Church and a mathematician of distinction. Prominent among these were The Fifth Book of Euclid Treated Algebraically (1858 and 1868), A Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry (1860), An Elementary Treatise on Determinants (1867), and Euclid and His Modern Rivals (1879). Of the last, his contemporary, the English author and librarian Falconer Madan, wrote, "This is the most elaborate mathematical work produced by Dodgson and at the same time a piece of literature." Apart from pamphlets and small textbooks for students, Dodgson's only other important mathematical works were the two series of Curiosa Mathematica (1888 and 1802). Though he printed several logical puzzles, his only books in this area were intended for children, though logicians consider Symbolic Logic (1896) important. Dodgson is also remembered for his pamphlets and letters on "Proportional Representation," conveniently collected and assessed by Duncan Black in The Theory of Committees and Elections (1958); while Some Popular Fallacies about Vivisection (1875) is still quoted with approval. From Colliers CD Rom Encyclopedia

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