When an academician becomes professor: the case of Joseph-Louis Lagrange
2014; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 2; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1007/s40329-014-0048-y
ISSN2281-5937
Autores Tópico(s)Historical and Literary Studies
ResumoWith the French Revolution, the role of the mathematician gradually evolved from protégés of princes to official professor. Lagrange provides a remarkable illustration of this fundamental change. Until 1792, this famous but discreet scientist had a European career, first in Turin and then to Berlin and finally Paris, ignoring national boundaries and rivalries between powers but always subject to the system of enlightened despotism. His life was that of a court mathematician, working in the narrow confines of academic institutions. The French Revolution completely changed his career and relaunched his work. He actively participated in the creation of the metric system and taught analysis in new educational institutions established by the Convention: the École Normale and the École Polytechnique. This is where he explained his theory of analytical functions, where differential and integral calculus were reduced to the study of the expansion of functions.
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