Abstract
Like most other sciences, European mathematics came to a virtual standstill during the long, dark Middle Ages. It was not until the sixteenth century that the notion of infinity—long since forgotten as a scientific issue and having become instead the subject of theological speculations—underwent its revival. And one of the first questions to be tackled was once again that of finding an approximation to the value of π.
It is only the affirmation of the power of the mind which knows it can conceive of the indefinite repetition of the same act, when the act is once possible.
— Henri Poincaré (1854–1912)
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© 1987 Birkhäuser Boston, Inc.
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Maor, E. (1987). Towards Legitimation. In: To Infinity and Beyond. Birkhäuser Boston. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5394-5_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-5394-5_2
Publisher Name: Birkhäuser Boston
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-5396-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-5394-5
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