Lewis Carroll’s Defense of Euclid: Parallels or Contrariwise

Natalie Schuler Evers ()
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Natalie Schuler Evers: University of South Alabama

Chapter 37 in Handbook of the Mathematics of the Arts and Sciences, 2021, pp 1093-1113 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In the nineteenth century, mathematical discoveries were being made that radically changed the world of mathematics. These changes sprung from the claim that Euclidean geometry – as laid out in Euclid’s Elements – was flawed, inadequate, and perhaps contingent. In response to these claims, Lewis Carroll used his position as the writer of the famous Alice in Wonderland to publish Through the Looking Glass in which he satirized what he considered the folly of teaching non-Euclidean geometries in schools. Some critics have noticed that Through the Looking Glass refers to contemporary mathematical ideas, but none have put it into context with the education reformation nor have they explored why Carroll included complex mathematics in what is typically considered a children’s story. I argue that not only was Carroll engaging in the debate, but many of the most memorable scenes and characters in Through the Looking Glass represent different elements in the Euclidean debate, and putting the story in context with the debate removes some of what has been attributed to “nonsense” from the text.

Keywords: Non-Euclidean geometry; Euclidean geometry; Lewis Carroll; Through the looking Glass (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-57072-3_128

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-57072-3_128

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