NEW!

Euclid as Founding Father

Tuesday, September 29

1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

Zoom Virtual Classroom

Tuition: $19

Once when asked how he got his “unusual power of ‘putting things’,” Abraham Lincoln replied, “I never went to school more than six months in my life.” He continued, “In the course of my law-reading I constantly came upon the word demonstrate. I thought, at first, that I understood its meaning, but soon became satisfied that I did not.” Resolving to understand it better, he went to his father’s house and “…staid there till I could give any propositions in the six books of Euclid at sight.” Well into the twentieth century, it was given that educated adults had studied Euclid. We will explore an interesting notion advocated by Adam Kucharski writing in “Nautilus” (October 13, 2016) that over two millennia after his death, Euclid found voice through the work of noted philosophers and statesmen, including our founding fathers. The instructor is convinced.

Cecil Huey is Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University and a dabbler in the history of science and technology.