Claire Voisin (Collège de France, Paris), Christian Gilain (Sorbonne Université, Paris)
Die Euler-Vorlesung 2019 wird von der französischen Mathematikerin Claire Voisin gehalten. Der traditionelle historische Vortrag wird von Professor Christian Gilain gehalten.
Claire Voisin (Collège de France, Paris): Some Aspects of Algebraic Geometry
I will discuss some fundamental ideas in algebraic geometry, particularly over the complex numbers, where algebra, topology and complex analysis beautifully meet.
Christian Gilain (Sorbonne Université, Paris): D'Alembert: Mathematics and the Enlightenment
The mathematician and philosopher Jean le Rond d’Alembert (1717-1783), coeditor of the Encyclopédie, is a central figure of the Enlightenment. As a scientist, he worked in the various fields of “pure” and “mixed” mathematics. In 1763, d'Alembert spent two months at Potsdam, in the Sanssouci Palace, at Friedrich II’s invitation and met Euler in Berlin. We will present a few of his research topics in the realm of pure mathematics: the integral calculus (algebraic functions, linear differential systems, partial differential equations); the fundamental theorem of algebra; the foundation of infinitesimal analysis. In the light of this work, we will examine d’Alembert’s conception of mathematics, far from the utilitarian view often attributed to him by the historiography. For him, as he argued in the Encyclopédie, mathematics could play an important role in the promotion of the Enlightenment and the emancipation of society.
