[Mathématiques et moralité à la pointe de la modernité]
Cette note suggère qu'une façon féconde d'étudier l'histoire des mathématiques est de considérer les visées pédagogiques de ces dernières. Afin d'illustrer les grandes orientations qu'une telle approche peut définir, l'article étudie les arguments qui ont été mis en avant au début de l'époque moderne en faveur de l'utilité pratique des mathématiques et de ses capacités à inculquer de bonnes habitudes de pensée. Il examine aussi l'apparition à la fin du xviiie et au début du xixe siècles de nouveaux usages pour l'éducation mathématique, qui servent les intérêts de l'État en cours de modernisation, avec l'accent mis de manière caractéristique sur les critères impersonnels d'évaluation des individus. L'article vise une approche de la pédagogie mathématique, qui refuse de la traiter comme non problématique et qui cherche des réponses dans l'histoire sociale et culturelle.
This note suggests that a fruitful way of investigating the history of mathematics lies in consideration of its pedagogical purposes. As a general illustration of the directions that such an approach might take, the paper discusses early-modern arguments for the practical utility of mathematics and its capacity to inculcate good habits of thought, as well as the appearance of new uses for mathematical training in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that served the purpose of the modernizing state, with its characteristic emphasis on impersonal criteria of evaluation and assessment of individuals. The paper encourages an understanding of mathematical pedagogy that refuses to treat it as unproblematic, and that seeks answers in social and cultural history.
@article{RHM_2001__7_2_277_0,
author = {Dear, Peter},
title = {Mathematics and {Morality} on the {Cusp} of {Modernity}},
journal = {Revue d'histoire des math\'ematiques},
pages = {277--293},
publisher = {Soci\'et\'e math\'ematique de France},
volume = {7},
number = {2},
year = {2001},
zbl = {1029.00005},
language = {en},
url = {http://www.numdam.org/item/RHM_2001__7_2_277_0/}
}
Dear, Peter. Mathematics and Morality on the Cusp of Modernity. Revue d'histoire des mathématiques, Tome 7 (2001) no. 2, pp. 277-293. http://www.numdam.org/item/RHM_2001__7_2_277_0/
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