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If we compare the mathematics of antiquity with that of the seventeenth century, we find
differences in a whole range of aspects. For the ancients, notions like infinity, chance, space, or
motion fell outside mathematics, while in the seventeenth century new mathematical theories
about these notions appeared. I believe that this fundamental change can be ascribed to the
influence of theology. For the ancients, ontology and epistemology were in unity. They
considered the world to be as it appeared to them; the phenomena as infinity or chance, which
appeared to them as ambiguous, they held to be really so. For modern humanity, ontology
and epistemology differ in a fundamental way. The being of the world is determined by
the omniscient God, therefore it is perfect, while our knowledge of the world is determined by
our finite capacities, and therefore it is ambiguous. It is this gap between ontology and
epistemology, which makes the mathematicization of notions such as infinity or chance, Ladislav Kvasz
despite their apparent ambiguity, possible.
concept of the potential infinity to that of ogy on mathematics. This hidden influence
important
the actual infinity. In the works of Bernard concerns the boundary, discriminating the
Bolzano and Georg Cantor, the founders of phenomena open to mathematical descrip- influence of
set theory, we find theological influences, tion from those which defy mathematical
the analysis of which plays an important description. theology on
role in the understanding of the history of
that theory.1 In the first part of this article, I present mathematics
five examples from the history of mathemat-
Another topic revealing the encounter of ics that illustrate the deep changes which
mathematics and theology is mathematical occurred in this discipline between the late
concerns the
logic. Gottlob Frege and Bertrand Russell antiquity and the early modern era. Each of
mark the end of a long tradition focused on these examples, taken separately, is well boundary
critical examination of the various proofs of known in the history of mathematics, but by
Gods existence, in the course of which many putting them together a common pattern of
of the principles of modern logic were dis- change seems to appear. In each of the five
covered.2 To illustrate this, it is sufficient to cases, a phenomenon considered by the
mention Kants thesis, according to which ancients to defy mathematical description
existence is not a real predicate. Kant formu-
Ladislav Kvasz was born in Bratislava in 1962. He graduated in 1986 in
lated this thesis in his criticism of Anselms mathematics at the Comenius University in Bratislava. In 1995, he defended
ontological proof of Gods existence (as exis- the thesis Classification of Scientific Revolutions and received a Ph.D. in
tence is not a real predicate, from the premise philosophy. Since 1986, he has been a lecturer at the Faculty of Mathematics
that all positive predicates apply to God, his and Physics of Comenius University. He became a reader of courses in history
existence does not follow). In mathematical of mathematics in 1999. Currently, Ladislavs main field of interest is history
logic, Kants thesis is one of the principles of and philosophy of exact sciences, which he attempts to connect to a broader
the syntax of predicate calculus. In accor- cultural background. His address is: Department of Humanities, FMFI-UK,
dance with this principle, existence is for- Mlynsk dolina, 84248 Bratislava
was mathematicized. The thesis of this arti- the science of the determined, definite, and
cle is that monotheistic theology with its certain knowledge. That which had no peras
idea of the omniscient and omnipotent God, could not be studied using the clear and
who created the world, indirectly influenced sharp notions of mathematics.
the process of this mathematicization. In
separating ontology from epistemology, mono- Modern mathematics, in contrast to
The theistic theology opened the possibility to antiquity, makes a distinction between infi-
explain all of the ambiguity connected to nite and indefinite. We consider the infinite,
mathematics these phenomena as a result of human fini- despite the fact that it has no end (finis), to be
tude and so to understand the phenomena determined and unequivocal, and thus
of the sixteenth themselves as unambiguous, and thus acces- accessible to mathematical investigation. Be
sible to mathematical description. it an infinitely extended geometrical figure,3
and seventeenth an infinitely small quantity4 or an infinite
set,5 we consider them as belonging to math-
centuries was Shifts of the Boundaries ematics. The ancient notion of apeiron was
thus divided into two notions: the notion of
of Mathematicization in
not simply the infinite in a narrow sense, which became
Early Modern Era a part of mathematics, and the notion of the
a revival of If we want to analyze the implicit, indirect indefinite, which, as previously, has no place
way in which monotheistic theology influ- in mathematics.
the ancient enced the development of western mathe-
matics, it seems appropriate to compare the 2. Tychrandomness. Another difference
mathematics of late antiquity with that of between the ancient and modern mathe-
tradition. the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In matics appears in the understanding of ran-
this later period, western mathematics, after domness (tych-tuch). The notion of tych,
It differed long centuries of decline and stagnation, similarly to that of apeiron, had a much
finally reached an intellectual level compa- broader meaning than our modern notion of
from the rable with the late Hellenistic era, charac- randomness; besides random events, it also
terized by the work of Archimedes and designated chance, luck, and fate in general.
mathematics Apollonius. Comparing the mathematics of Therefore, it was not accessible to mathe-
these two epochs, we find a surprising fact. matical investigation. Tych belonged in the
of the sixteenth The mathematics of the sixteenth and seven- competence of an oracle than that of mathe-
teenth centuries was not simply a revival of matics. For ordinary people, their personal
and seventeenth the ancient tradition. It differed from the fate remained hidden. From the sixteenth
mathematics of the sixteenth and seven- century onward, books on gambling started
centuries in teenth centuries in a whole range of aspects, to appear in mathematical literature, and
which, in my view, can be ascribed to the during the seventeenth century, the modern
a whole range influence of monotheistic theology on math- probability theory developed from this tradi-
ematics. In order to get a better understand- tion.6 From the viewpoint of ancient schol-
of aspects, ing of these aspects, I will concentrate on ars, a mathematical theory of tych is just as
five notions that underwent radical changes. absurd as a mathematical theory of apeiron.
which, These are the notions of infinity, chance, the And in the case of tych, the breakthrough
unknown, space, and motion. toward modern mathematics happened along
in my view, the same lines, as it did in the case of apeiron:
1. Apeironinfinity. What we refer to today the ancient notion was divided into two con-
can be ascribed as infinite was in antiquity subsumed under cepts. The first of them, the concept of ran-
the notion of apeiron (apeiron). Nevertheless, domness, became the subject of the theory of
to the influence compared with our modern notion of infin- probability, while the second one, the notion
ity, the notion of apeiron had a much broader of fate, remained beyond the boundaries of
of monotheistic meaning. It applied not only to that which exact sciences.
was infinite, but also to everything that had
theology on no boundary (i.e. no peras), that was indefi- 3. Arithmosunknown. The third change
nite, vague, or blurred. According to ancient has to do with the birth of algebra, and espe-
mathematics. scholars, apeiron was something lacking cially with the notion of the unknown, which
boundaries, lacking determination, and since Descartes is most often expressed by
therefore uncertain. Mathematical study of the letter x. Algebra was created in the
apeiron was impossible, mathematics being Arabic civilization, as the name of this math-
ematical discipline indicates. The Arabic civilization is Nevertheless, early modern science is founded on the
monotheistic, similar to western civilization. Thus, follow- mathematical notion of space. Newton, for instance, took
ing my thesis about the implicit connection between the absolute space to be one of the fundamental categories
monotheistic theology and modern mathematics, the birth of his system, and he explicitly referred to it as mathe-
of algebra can be placed beside the birth of the theory of matical space.8 Thus, in complete analogy to the previous
probability and the mathematical theory of the infinite. three cases, a further region is mathematicizeda region
that from the ancients point of view defied any mathe-
First of all, I would like to stress that the ancient mathe- maticization. The new mathematical notion of space is a
maticians did not know the notion of the unknown in its narrowing of the original notion of kenn, just as infinity
modern, algebraic form. Of course, in antiquity, mathe- was a narrowing of apeiron and probability was a narrow-
maticians dealt with a rich variety of practical problems, ing of tych. We can assert that space is three dimensional,
requiring them to find a certain number. The Greek math- orientable and continuous; we can hardly ascribe any of
ematicians usually called this the unknown number these attributes to emptiness.
(arithmosariJmoV). However, in solving such problems
they proceeded in a synthetic way, using only the values
of the known quantities given in the formulation of the
problem. The unknown quantity, precisely because it was
unknown, could not be used in arithmetical operations.
From the ancient notions, which were
The basic idea of algebra is to represent the unknown
by a letter and subject it to the same arithmetical opera- broad and ambiguous [apeiron, tych,
tions as ordinary numbers.7 The purpose of the algebraic
symbolism is to overcome the epistemological barrier sep- kenn, and kinesis], narrow and specific
arating those quantities we know from those we do not
know. Thus in algebra, we work with both the known as parts [infinity, randomness, space, and
well as the unknown quantities, as if they were equivalent.
From the point of view of ancient mathematics, this is motion] were separated, and it was
something absurd, because if we do not know the value of
a quantity, we cannot determine the outcomes of the arith- only these narrower notions that were
metical operations applied to it. According to the ancient
understanding, what is undetermined cannot become the mathematicized.
subject of mathematical operations.
ambiguity of the ancient notions. This weak- A similar tension between the ontological
probability, ening of ambiguity was very important, definiteness (necessary for the application of
because it was precisely the ambiguity of the arithmetical operations) and epistemological
space, and notions of apeiron, tych, kenn and kinesis indefiniteness is characteristic in the notion
that led the Greek mathematicians to con- of the unknown in algebra. The unknown is
motion. sider these notions as defying mathematical unknown for us, finite beings. For God there
investigation. The success of modern mathe- are no unknowns at all. As soon as he looks
matics consisted precisely in that it has at the formulation of an algebraic problem,
found a way to overcome the residual ambi- he immediately sees the value of the un-
guity of the narrow notions of infinity, known. He has no need to solve the equa-
probability, space, and motion. tions, because due to his omniscience, he
immediately knows the solutions. Thus, in
Now we come to the third common fea- a way similar to the case of the theory of
ture of the above-mentioned changes. Let us probability, in algebra too, the ontological
first take the notion of infinity. While for the ambiguity, which prevented the Greeks from
ancients apeiron was a negative notion asso- mathematicizing this area, was transformed
ciated with going astray and losing the way, into an epistemological ambiguity, having its
ist sama sebou, vahy o mnozinch, nekonecne, paradoxoch a from the works of mathematicians such as Pierre de Fermat
Gdelovych vetch (Even mathematics cannot be certain about itself, (16011665), Blaise Pascal (16231662), Christian Huygens
Essays on sets, infinity, paradoxes, and Gdels theorems, in Slo- (16291695), Johann Bernoulli (16671748), Abraham de Moivre
vak) (Bratislava: IRIS, 1995). (16671754), and many others. See F. N. David, Games, Gods and
2See Zlatos, Ani matematika si nemze byt ist sama sebou; P. Hajek, Gambling: A History of Probability and Statistical Ideas (London:
Goedeluv dukaz existence Boha (Gdels proof of Gods existence, Charles Griffin, 1962).
in Czech) in J. Malina and J. Novotn, eds., Kurt Goedel (Brno: 7Al Khwarizmi introduced around 820 three operations with the
Universitas Masarykiana, 1996), and P. Zlatos, Gdelov ontologicky unknown: al gabr, al muquabala and al radd. From the first of them,
dkaz existencie Boha (Gdels onthological proof of Gods existence, algebra got its name. See B. L. van der Waerden, A History of Alge-
in Slovak) in J. Rybr, ed., Filozofia a kognitvne vedy (Bratislava: bra: From al-Khwarizmi to Emmy Noether (Berlin: Springer, 1985).
IRIS, 2002). 8The notion of absolute space was introduced by Isaac Newton
3One of the first infinitely extended geometrical figures was studied (16431727) in the Sholium at the beginning of the first book of the
by Evangelista Torricelli (16081647) in 1646. See D. J. Struik, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica published in 1687.
A Source Book in Mathematics, 12001800 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard 9Galileo laid the foundations of kinematics in Discorsi e
University Press, 1969), 22732. dimonstrazioni matematiche, intorno a due nuove scienze; attenenti alla
4Infinitely small quantities were used by Johannes Kepler mecanica i movimenti locali published in 1638.
(15711630) in his Nova stereometria doliorum vinariorum, published 10The change of the attitude toward the notion of infinity can be seen
in Linz in 1615 and by Galileo Galilei (15641642) in his Discorsi e by Nicolaus von Kues (14011464), see E. Knobloch, Unendlichkeit
dimonstrazioni matematiche, intorno a due nuove scienze; attenenti alla und Mathematik bei Nicolaus von Kues in A. Schrmann and B. Weiss,
mecanica i movimenti locali, published in Leiden 1638. See Struik, eds., ChemieKulturGeschichte, Festschrift fr Hans-Werner Schtt
A Source Book in Mathematics, 12001800, 192209. (Berlin: Verlag fr Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der
5The notion of an infinite set was introduced by Bolzano in his Technik, 2002), 2234.
Paradoxien des Unendlichen in 1851. See B. Bolzano, Paradoxien des 11A discussion of the theological background of modern science can
Unendlichen (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1975). be found in A. Funkenstein, Theology and the Scientific Imagination
6One of the first books on gambling was Liber de Ludo Aleae (Book on (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986) or in B. Gaal, The
Games of Chance) written by Gerolamo Cardano (15011576) Truth of Reason and the Reality of the World (Debrecen: Debrecen
before 1565. See O. Ore, Cardano the Gambling Scholar (Princeton: Reformed College, 2002).
Princeton University Press, 1953). The theory of probability arose
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