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Charles Davies as a Philosopher of Mathematics Education

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Research in History and Philosophy of Mathematics

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Abstract

Charles Davies (1798–1876), who taught at the United States Military Academy at West Point (USMA), Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, New York University, the State Normal College at Albany, New York, and Columbia University, was one of the most prolific and popular compilers of mathematics textbooks in the USA in the nineteenth century. This essay explores his The Logic and Utility of Mathematics, With the Best Methods of Instruction Explained and Illustrated (1850), which Bidwell and Clason (1970, p. 38) and Jones and Coxford Jr. (1970, p. 31) called the “first American book on mathematics teaching methods” and “the first book in the United States for secondary teachers of mathematics,” respectively. I will describe and analyze the three major parts of the text—“logic,” “mathematical science,” and “utility of mathematics”—and consider the historical significance of Davies’s entire project, which he intended as an explication of the USMA “system of mathematical instruction” (1850, p. 3).

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks the anonymous referees as well as audiences at the 2018 Joint Mathematics Meetings, CIR-MATH-Americas workshop, CSHPM Annual Meeting, and Women’s Intellectual Network Research Symposium for their helpful questions and comments. David Orenstein and Cathy Kessel provided suggestions for lines of research and potential sources. Adrian Rice supplied the information about De Morgan.

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  1. Independent Scholar, Rockville, MD, USA

    Amy Ackerberg-Hastings

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  1. Amy Ackerberg-Hastings
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Correspondence to Amy Ackerberg-Hastings .

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  1. Point Loma Nazarene University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Maria Zack

  2. McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada

    Dirk Schlimm

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Ackerberg-Hastings, A. (2020). Charles Davies as a Philosopher of Mathematics Education. In: Zack, M., Schlimm, D. (eds) Research in History and Philosophy of Mathematics. Proceedings of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Mathematics/ Société canadienne d’histoire et de philosophie des mathématiques. Birkhäuser, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31298-5_7

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