Muriel Seltman
British left-wing activist, mathematics educator, historian of mathematics, and author
Muriel Seltman (27 March 1927 – 2 December 2019) [1] was British left-wing activist, mathematics educator , historian of mathematics , and author of books on mathematics, religion, politics, and philosophy.
Life
Seltman was born in Stamford Hill , a Jewish neighborhood of London, [2] on 27 March 1927. [1] She studied mathematics and mathematics education at Trinity College Dublin , [3] and met her husband there. [4] They joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1952, [5] but by the early 1960s had been expelled from the party for their anti-revisionism (sympathy for Maoism and opposition to the Khrushchev Thaw ). [4] They traveled with their son to North Korea, [5] where Seltman worked as a teacher, but, bored with the North Korean cult of personality and their life there, [4] left for China in 1965, just in time for the Cultural Revolution . Disillusioned, they returned to England in 1966, [5] and Seltman later wrote a book What's Left? What's Right? describing her experiences. [4]
She taught mathematics at Avery Hill College beginning in 1968, retiring in 1981 but continuing on a part-time basis for another 20 years, through the college's 1985 incorporation into the University of Greenwich . [2] Her works in mathematics and the history of mathematics include a translation of a book on algebra by Thomas Harriot , originally published in 1631, a few years after Harriot's death. Co-editor Robert Goulding provided the translation, while Seltman was responsible for the book's detailed commentary on Harriot's work, [6] with both translation and commentary based on a master's thesis she wrote at University College London , A Commentary on the Artis Analyticae Praxis of Thomas Harriot (1972). [7] She also completed a PhD at University College London, with the dissertation Descartes's "Regulae ad directionem ingenii": a case-study in the emergence of early modern algebra (1987). [8]
Although of Jewish descent, she became a nontheist Quaker , and despite her early experiences continued to describe herself as a Marxist . [9] She died on 2 December 2019. [1]
Books
Seltman's books include:
- Piaget's Logic: A Critique of Genetic Epistemology (with Peter Seltman, George Allen & Unwin, 1985) [10]
- Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis: An English Translation with Commentary (edited with Robert Goulding, Springer, 2007) [6]
- What's Left? What's Right?: A Political Journey via North Korea and the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Dorrance Publishing, 2010) [2] [4]
- Bread and Roses: Nontheism and the Human Spirit (Matador, 2013) [2]
- The Changing Faces of Antisemitism (Matador, 2015)
- Rescuing God From Religion (Matador, 2016) [11]
- Rescuing Jesus from Christianity (Matador, 2018)
- Marx the Humanist (Troubador, 2019)
References
- 1 2 3 Commemorating Muriel Seltman , Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, December 2019 , retrieved 2021-06-12
- 1 2 3 4 Chaffers, Eloise (June 2013), "Taking a break from algebraic symbolism, 86 year old Muriel Seltman has written a book on nontheism" , SEnine , p. 18
- ↑ See What's Left? What's Right? , p. 23
- 1 2 3 4 5 Coyle, Kenny (29 June 2014), "Voyage of disillusion in search for political purity (review of What's Left? What's Right? )" , Morning Star
- 1 2 3 Owen, Lara (19 May 2016), 九旬英国共产党:我是怎样卷入中国文革的? (in Chinese), BBC
-
1
2
Reviews of
Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis
:
-
Knobloch, Eberhard
(2008),
Mathematical Reviews
,
MR
2307972
{{ citation }}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical ( link ) -
Schlote, Karl-Heinz,
zbMATH
,
Zbl
1151.01006
{{ citation }}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical ( link ) - Stedall, Jacqueline A. (September 2007), "Review" , MAA Reviews
-
Knobloch, Eberhard
(2008),
Mathematical Reviews
,
MR
2307972
- ↑ See Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis , front matter, page v, and the references of Stedall, Jacqueline A. (June 2000), "Rob'd of glories: the posthumous misfortunes of Thomas Harriot and his algebra", Archive for History of Exact Sciences , 54 (6): 455–497, doi : 10.1007/s004070050041 , JSTOR 41134093 , S2CID 123490351
- ↑ WorldCat catalog entry for Descartes's "Regulae ad directionem ingenii" : a case-study in the emergence of early modern algebra , retrieved 2021-06-12
- ↑ Seltman, Muriel (17 January 2019), "Quaker and Marxist?" , The Friend
-
↑
Reviews of
Piaget's Logic
:
-
Kitchener, Richard F. (June 1991),
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
,
42
(2): 285–290,
doi
:
10.1093/bjps/42.2.285
,
JSTOR
688061
{{ citation }}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical ( link ) - Spiro, Avron (January 1986), "Making sense of Piaget's critics", The Review of Education , 12 (1): 25–29, doi : 10.1080/0098559860120106
-
Kitchener, Richard F. (June 1991),
British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
,
42
(2): 285–290,
doi
:
10.1093/bjps/42.2.285
,
JSTOR
688061
-
↑
Review of
Rescuing God From Religion
:
- Gilmore, Alec (7 April 2017), "Book reviews" , Baptist Times , Baptists Together
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