Reddit reviews The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero
We found 6 Reddit comments about The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Used Book in Good Condition
> Kenneth G. Wilson remarks, "If we do end by casting aside the A.D./B.C. convention, almost certainly some will argue that we ought to cast aside as well the conventional numbering system itself, given its Christian basis." [emphasis added]
That's an awful lot of wrong packed into 3 little words - zero itself occurs in the works of the Sumerians and the ancient Greeks, and place value arithmetic was considerably refined in China, India and the Arab world LONG before it was used in the Christian West. Check out The Nothing That Is for a history of the conventional number system.
I wrote a paper on a topic tangentially related to this and used The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero as a kind of case study of one particular mathematical object.
It covers the historical development of Zero, why we use the symbol 0 for zero, different arguments pertaining to zero, etc. Very well-written and engaging.
Your particular take on the ontological status of mathematical objects will determine what philosophers / books you use. But regardless of your take, you can use the Zero book as a concrete history of a particular mathematical object that you can then assess through the philosophical lens.
I took a history of math course out of Howard Eves's Great Moments in Mathematics, and it was great. The problems can be very challenging and informative to historical methods, and I really liked the narrative. It's split into two slim volumes, before/after 1650. looks like about $16 each volume, and I would consider it money well spent.
I also enjoyed The Nothing That Is.
Somewhat relevant is "The Nothing That Is: A Natural History Of Zero" by Ellen Kaplan (http://www.amazon.com/The-Nothing-that-Is-Natural/dp/0195142373). While this book focuses on the number zero, it is an interesting read about the concept of "nothingness" and how some cultures simply don't have any representation for it. It goes into the incredible value of the number zero mathematically as well. If you don't find a book that gives you everything you are looking for, I highly recommend making this book part of your research.
Robert Kaplan's The Nothing that Is: A Natural History of Zero
Not a math question, but have you ever read The Nothing That Is?
No, I'm not Robert Kaplan.