The following is a list of some of the meetings on Bolzano’s mathematics.
Logic and Metaphysics in Leibniz and Bolzano (2023)
Organised by Benjamin Schnieder and Jan Claas as part of the research project “The Bohemian Leibniz”, the workshop “Logic and Metaphysics in Leibniz and Bolzano” was held on the 31st of March and the 1st of April in Vienna. More information can be found here.
Mathématiques et philosophie chez Bernard Bolzano (2022)
Organised by Vincenzo De Risi as part of the Séminaire d’Histoire des Mathématiques de l’Institut Henri Poincaré, the session “Mathématiques et philosophie chez Bernard Bolzano” was held on the 18th of February in Paris. More information can be found here.
Bolzano Symposium (2019)
Organised by Steve Russ, the symposium Bolzano’s Mathematics and the General Methodology of the Sciences was held on the 8th of August as part of the 16th CLMPST. The symposium consisted of 10 talks which were divided into 4 sessions.
CONCEPTS AND METHODOLOGY (Session 17B) Chair: Steve Russ Michael Otte: Bolzano, Kant and the evolution of the concept of concept (abstract and paper) Annapaola Ginammi and Arianna Betti: Bolzano’s theory of ground and consequence and the traditional theory of concepts (abstract) Paola Cantù: Bolzano’s requirement of a correct ordering of concepts and its inheritance in modern axiomatics (abstract) THE MATHEMATICAL INFINITE AND OTHER PROBLEMS (Session 18B) Chair: Arianna Betti Johan Blok: Did Bolzano Solve the Eighteenth Century Problem of Problematic Mathematical Entities? (abstract and discussion in absentia) Kateřina Trlifajová: Bolzano and the part-whole principle for infinite collections (abstract and slides) Elías Fuentes Guillén: On Bolzano’s early rejection of infinitesimals (abstract and slides) MATHEMATICAL MANUSCRIPTS (Session 19B) Chair: Peter Simons Davide Crippa and Elías Fuentes Guillén, with Jan Makovský: Bernard Bolzano’s 1804 examination: mathematics and mathematical teaching in early 19th century Bohemia (abstract and slides) Jan Šebestík: Looking at Bolzano’s mathematical manuscripts (abstract) KINDS OF NUMBERS (Session 20B) Chair: Steve Russ Anna Bellomo: Bolzano’s measurable numbers: sets or sums? (abstract and slides) Peter Simons: On the several kinds of number in Bolzano (abstract and slides)
An additional talk on Bolzano’s mathematics, entitled “On continuity in Bolzano’s 1817 Rein analytischer Beweis…”, was presented by Marlena Fila at the Symposium of the Association for the Philosophy of Mathematical Practice. Her abstract can be found here. Two reports of the symposium were elaborated: one for the Newsletter of the International Bernard Bolzano Gesellschaft, which can be found here, and one for the Proceedings of the 16th CLMPST, to be published by College Publications. In addition, two posters (posterA and posterB) were produced using a detail from a famous oil painting by Heinrich Hollpein and a lithograph based on it. The photographs by Dagmar Landová in Bildnisse Bolzanos are the sources. Steve Russ was able to make a short research visit in December 2018 to an archive in Prague thanks to a grant from the British Society for the History of Mathematics, which led to the Bolzano Symposium at the 16th CLMPST. A report about this visit can be found here.
Mathematics and its Philosophy between the 18th and the 19th Century (2018)
Organised by Arianna Betti and Anna Bellomo, this workshop was held at the University of Amsterdam on the 13th-14th of July 2018. The aim was to foster discussion on the development of mathematics and related themes in philosophy in the German speaking context during the 18th and the 19th century. More information can be found here.
Bolzano in Prague 2017
The meeting Bolzano in Prague 2017 was held from the 27th to the 29th of November. Organised by Steve Russ and Davide Crippa, this was a small research-oriented meeting celebrating the 200th anniversary of some major achievements of Bolzano to be found in his two mathematical works of 1817. The discussions focused mainly on the recently defended PhD theses of Johan Blok and Elías Fuentes Guillén, although other works were also discussed. Each session discussion was introduced and chaired by one of the participants.
The Google group “Bolzano in Prague 2017”, which still persists, was created to discuss matters that arose from the texts. If you would like to join the group, please send an email to Steve Russ (s.b.russ@warwick.ac.uk). Research questions for discussion (from Steve Russ) can be found here. A short paper by Steve Russ on the 200th anniversary of some mathematical achievements of Bernard Bolzano, entitled “Bolzano in Bohemia”, was published in Mathematics Today (Vol. 53, No. 6, pp. 278-281). Copies for personal use can be obtained on request to the author. Participants: Steve Russ, Davide Crippa, Kateřina Trlifajová, Alena Vencovská, Magdalena Hykšová, Marta Vlasáková, Johan Blok, Stefan Roski, Ansten Klev, Ladislav Kvasz, Joan Bertran San-Millán (in person). Jan Šebestík, Paul Rusnock and Elías Fuentes Guillén (via Skype). The venue was hosted by the Kabinet pro studium vědy, techniky a společnosti and the Centrum pro teoretická studia.
The meeting Bolzano in Prague 2014 was held from the 16th to the 19th of July. Organised by Arianna Betti and Steve Russ, it addressed several aspects of Bolzano’s thought, including topics in ethics, politics, aesthetics, theology, mathematics, logic, methodology and philosophy of science. More information can be found here. A report on the meeting can be found here.
Bolzano in Prague 2010
The meeting Philosophy and Mathematics in the Work of Bernard Bolzano was held in Prague (and Těchobuz) from the 15th to the 18th of April. It was organised to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Bolzano’s Beyträge zu einer begründeteren Darstellung der Mathematik. More information can be found here.
Previous meetings
2002: Symposium Bernard Bolzanos Leistungen in Logik, Mathematik und Physik, Vienna. 1998: Symposium Bernard Bolzanos geistiges Erbe für das 21. Jahrhundert, Vienna. 1998: Conference Bernard Bolzano: Philosophy of Logic and Mathematics, Paris. 1998: Conference on Bernard Bolzano and Gottlob Frege, Genève. 1998: Conference on Bernard Bolzano and Gottlob Frege, Bratislava. 1997: Conference Bernard Bolzano and Analytic Philosophy, Hamburg. 1997: Bolzano-Workshop, Vienna. 1991: International Bolzano Symposium, Salzburg. 1981: Impact of Bolzano’s Epoch on the Development of Science, Prague. 1981: Bernard Bolzano, Konference českých matematiků, Prague. 1981: Bernard Bolzano 1781-1848, Prague. 1973: Bolzano als Logiker, Vienna.
