Speaker: Karine Chemla
Time: 4pm CET, 13 and 16 February
Lecture 1: How to Read an Ancient Chinese Mathematical Problem
The mathematical texts from ancient China consist mainly of problems and procedures. If we do not ask ourselves what a problem was for their users, we run the risk of reading these texts anachronistically. The presentation will discuss methods that can be deployed to address this issue.
Lecture 2: Chinese Language and Science
Several scholars have raised the question of the impact of the Chinese language on scientific activity. However, they have most often been dealt with it without taking into account how language was actually used in scientific practice. The aim of this presentation is to examine how this issue has been addressed in the past, and to offer new perspectives on the subject, based on the consideration of actual scientific writings in Chinese.