[Ads-l] Antedating of "Number Theory"

[victor steinbok]

Try this
https://books.google.com/books?id=6_wZAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA22-PA24&dq=%22zahlentheorie%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&ovdme=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi244i6qbn7AhWwMlkFHVMzCq8QuwV6BAgIEAY#v=onepage&q=%22zahlentheorie%22&f=false

On Fri, Nov 18, 2022, 22:12 Chris Waigl <chris at lascribe.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Chris Waigl <chris at LASCRIBE.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Antedating of "Number Theory"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> (Given that so much of the academic disciplinary jargon of the 19th century
> was developed in various European / European culture countries
> simultaneously ...)
>
> I took a look in DWDS for "Zahlentheorie". One of their corpus links is
> down, but for the others the two oldest hits are"
>
> - 1850, Alexander von Humboldt ("Kosmos"): "Die Pythagoreer, denen Zahl die
> Quelle der Erkenntni=C3=9F, die Wesenheit der Dinge war, wandten ihre
> Zahlentheorie, die alles verschmelzende Lehre der Zahlverh=C3=A4ltnisse
> auf=
>  die
> geometrische Betrachtung der fr=C3=BCh erkannten 5 regelm=C3=A4=C3=9Figen
> K=
> =C3=B6rper, auf die
> musikalischen Intervalle der T=C3=B6ne, welche die Accorde bestimmen und
> verschiedene Klanggeschlechter bilden, ja auf den Weltenbau selbst an:
> ahndend, da=C3=9F die bewegten, gleichsam schwingenden, Klangwellen
> erregen=
> den
> Planeten nach den harmonischen Verh=C3=A4ltnissen ihrer r=C3=A4umlichen
> Int=
> ervalle
> eine Sph=C3=A4renmusik hervorrufen m=C3=BC=C3=9Ften." ["The Pythagoreans,
> f=
> or whom number
> was the source of knowledge, the essence of being, applied their number
> theory, the all-encompassing learning of the ratios of numbers to the
> geometric examination of the five regular bodies, which were known in early
> times, to the musical intervals of tones, which determine chords and the
> diverse genres of sound, and even to world building: ...." - my
> quick-and-rough translation]
> - 1861, a handbook of symbols of freemasonry: "Der Mensch besitzt als das
> einzige und zugleich h=C3=B6chste Winkelmass, als den pr=C3=BCfenden
> Massst=
> ab, seines
> F=C3=BChlens, Denkens und Handelns die Vernunft; die Pythagor=C3=A4er,
> zuma=
> l
> Telauges, der Sohn des Pythagoras, und Philolaos, sowie Archytas, Plato und
> Speusippos, hatten zu diesem oder die Zahl und Zahlen erheben wollen, bis
> diese pythagoreische Zahlenlehre, Zahlentheorie von Aristoteles, dem
> gr=C3=B6sseren und gl=C3=BCcklichen Nachfolger und Erben der
> Pythagor=C3=A4=
> er, beseitigt
> und durch eine streng wissenschaftliche Denklehre oder Logik und
> Erkenntnisstheorie oder Metaphysik ersetzt wurde." ["Man possesses reason
> as the only and simultaneously highest compass, as the probing measuring
> stick of his feeeling, thinking and action; the Pythagoreans, as well as
> Telauges, Pythagoras's son, and Philotas, and also Archytas, Plato and
> Speusippos, [etc] wanted to elevate number or numbers to this rank, until
> this pythagorean number concept, number theory, was done away with by
> Aristoteles, who was the greatest and most favoured of the successors and
> heirs of the Pythagoreans, and replaced it with a strictly scientific
> theory of thought or logic and epistemology, or metaphysics" (I think ther
> ewas an OCR error, but the sentence is opaque enough that it doesn't
> matter)
>
> Funny that it came up as a Pythagorean and post-Pythagorean concept.
>
> Chris
>
> On Sun, Nov 13, 2022 at 7:05 AM Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote=
> :
>
> > number theory (OED 1899)
> >
> > Jeff Miller's "Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics"
> > webpage states the following:
> >
> > Number theory appears in 1853 in Manual of Greek literature from the
> > earliest authentic periods to the close of the Byzantine era by Charles
> > Anthon: "The ethics of the Pythagoreans consisted more in ascetic
> practic=
> e
> > and in maxims for the restraint of the passions, especially of anger, and
> > the cultivation of the power of endurance, than in scientific theory.
> Wha=
> t
> > of the latter they had was, as might be expected, intimately connected
> wi=
> th
> > their number-theory" [University of Michigan Digital Library].
> >
> > Number theory appears in 1864 in A history of philosophy in epitome by
> Dr=
> .
> > Albert Schwegler, translated from the original German by Julius H.
> Seelye=
> :
> > "Not only the old Pythagoreans, who have spoken of him, delighted in the
> > mysterious and esoteric, but even his new-Platonistic biographers,
> Porphy=
> ry
> > and Jamblichus, have treated his life as a historico-philosophical
> romanc=
> e.
> > We have the same uncertainty in reference to his doctrines, i. e. in
> > reference to his share in the number-theory. Aristotle, e. g. does not
> > ascribe this to Pythagoras himself, but only to the Pythagoreans
> generall=
> y,
> > i. e. to their school" [University of Michigan Digital Library].
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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> >
>
>
> --=20
> Chris Waigl . chris.waigl at gmail.com . chris at lascribe.net
> http://eggcorns.lascribe.net . http://chryss.eu
>
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