Introductory remarks

Volker R. Remmert

Martina R. Schneider

pp. 1-8

in: Volker R. Remmert, Martina R. Schneider, Per Kragh-Sørensen (eds), Historiography of mathematics in the 19th and 20th centuries, Basel, Birkhäuser, 2016

Abstract

In this volume, we show through detailed case studies, how the historiography of mathematics has been influenced by the contexts and motivations of its practitioners.1 The notion of historiography in the context of history of mathematics holds an important ambiguity: It can mean the history of mathematics or the methodology of the history of mathematics, and naturally these two are intimately related. As historians, we are situated in various discourses that shape the questions and methods involved in writing history of mathematics. Thus, in what follows, these two perspectives will frequently intersect and overlap.