David Herbert Fowler (28 April 1937 – 13 April 2004) was a historian of
Greek mathematics
Greek mathematics refers to mathematics texts and ideas stemming from the Archaic through the Hellenistic and Roman periods, mostly extant from the 7th century BC to the 4th century AD, around the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean. Greek math ...
who published work on pre-
Eudoxian ratio theory (using the process he called
anthyphairesis). He disputed the standard story of
Greek mathematical discovery, in which the discovery of the phenomenon of
incommensurability
Two concepts or things are commensurable if they are measurable or comparable by a common standard.
Commensurability most commonly refers to commensurability (mathematics). It may also refer to:
* Commensurability (astronomy), whether two orbit ...
came as a shock.
Fowler was also the translator of
René Thom's book ''Structural Stability and Morphogenesis'' from French (''Stabilité strukturelle et morphogénèse'') into English.
References
Obituaryin
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
, 3 May 2004 by
Christopher Zeeman.
Obituaryin
The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...
, 24 May 2004.
External links
BibliographyBook Reviewby
Fernando Q. Gouvêa o
''The Mathematics of Plato's Academy''organized in his honor at Warwick, 9 November 2004.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fowler, David
British historians of mathematics
20th-century British mathematicians
21st-century British mathematicians
1937 births
2004 deaths
Fowler, David
Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
People educated at Rossall School