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The Impossible and the Imaginable: Late-Medieval Semantics of Impossibility and the Roots of Complex Mathematics

Objective

"A popular view in the history of philosophy and science holds that we only conceive what is in some sense possible and cannot truly understand anything intrinsically contradictory. The Chimera is the paradigmatic example of such an inconceivable absolute impossibility in medieval logic. ""Chimera"" is a necessarily empty term lacking signification and reference. Analogously premodern mathematics dismisses the square root of a negative number as the impossible result of an impossible operation, i.e. something as nonsensical as the Chimera.
Yet by the 16th century complex numbersi.e. those numbers having an imaginary part i = the numerical value of [root1]start being used and problematised. Somewhere down the line these ""impossible numbers"" had become conceivable and manipulable. How and why did this shift happen?
i2 seeks the answer in the late medieval semantics of necessarily empty terms. In the 14th century, Marsilius of Inghen (ca.1341-96) makes terms like ""Chimera"" properly signifying, understandable and referential in his semantics. Marsilius' account of imaginable absolute impossibilities is widely influential in the 15th and 16th centuries. Girolamo Cardanocredited with the philosophical problematisation of complex numbersseems at least partly aware of this Marsilian tradition.
Marsilius' semantics of imaginable impossibilities, its later reception and its possible influence on Cardano have not yet been explored. This is what i2 is set to do for the first time, through a key-concept analysis and the applications of the method of historical and rational reconstruction to a rich textual corpus. i2 will produce a groundbreaking account of the rise of complex mathematics in relation to the medieval semantics of impossibility and imaginability.
Based at Radboud's Center for the History of Philosophy and Science, and advised by an international board of scholars, i2 will deliver high-impact outputs in top journals, two books and knowledge dissemination results."

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(opens in new window) ERC-2022-STG

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Host institution

STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITEIT
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 498 894,00
Address
HOUTLAAN 4
6525 XZ Nijmegen
Netherlands

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Region
Oost-Nederland Gelderland Arnhem/Nijmegen
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 498 894,00

Beneficiaries (1)

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