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On basic features of the Mathematics in nine sections. (English) Zbl 0942.01003

Here, the authors proudly recite the credo of the often heard Chinese nationalist theory concerning the double origin of modern mathematics: Greece and China. Drawing a parallel between the two brightest civilizations of antiquity in order to reveal the double bind to which mathematical thought has been subjected all over history, they explain that Euclid is responsible of the logical and abstract structure of mathematics whereas the anonymous author of the Mathematics in Nine Sections is the inventor of the algorithmic and applied component of mathematics from which modern computer science is born. Armed with this unassailable dialectic, the authors reformulate in their own way the former Maoist slogan urging people “to walk on two legs” and they advise mathematicians to combine theory and practice, hand in hand with gratuitous mathematical developments and social concerns. Lastly, an illuminating dialectic conclusion eliminates Greece from the subtle scenario: in fact, China is at the origin of all mathematics since “everything mathematical can be restated into computational terms”.

MSC:

01A25 History of Chinese mathematics
01A99 History of mathematics and mathematicians
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