Euclid: Elements and Descartes: Meditations (Third Year Tutorial)

Euclid: Elements and Descartes: Meditations Winter 2011, Wednesday 11:45 AM - 1:15 PM Steven Schroeder TEXTS: Euclid. The Thirteen Books of the Elements, Volume 1. Dover. 9780486600888. Descartes. Meditations. (Lafleur, tr., Prentice Hall. 9780023671708.
Weeks 1-5: Euclid, Elements (Book I) (please bring a compass and straightedge to the sessions on Euclid) 1/5: Begin reading/discussing definitions, common notions and postulates
1/12: [Conclude common notions and postulates] Propositions 1-10, especially 1, 9, and 10
1/19: Propositions 11-24, especially 11 [and 12], 13, 15, 20
1/26: Propositions 25-36, especially 27-8, 32, 34-36
2/2: Propositions 37-48: comparison of areas, and especially 47-48 Euclid's Elements, Book I (Clay Mathematics Institute Historical Archive) Euclid's Elements, Book I (David E. Joyce, Clark University)
Weeks 6-11: Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy 2/9: "Letter to the Faculty...," "Preface," "Synopsis," Meditation I, "Concerning Things That Can Be Doubted," and Meditation II, "Of the Nature of the Human Mind..." [class will meet from 11:45 AM - 2:00 PM this week] Although the 2nd turned out to be a snow day, we'll go ahead and begin the discussion of Descartes today. We can also certainly use some of the extra time we'd planned to discuss questions about Euclid -- including the question posed on 1/26 about poetry and mathematics.]
2/16: no class
2/23: Meditation III, "Of God: That He Exists" [I'll be meeting for the full three hours with my Pragmatism class this week. Michael Allocca will fill in.]
3/2: Meditation IV, "Of the True and the False" [class will meet from 11:45 AM - 2:00 PM this week]
3/9: Meditation V, "Of the Essence of Material Things..."
3/16: Meditation VI, "Of the Essence of Corporeal Things..."
Page maintained by Steven Schroeder \| updated 6 february 2011 contact: schroeder_at_uchicago.edu The University of Chicago Graham School