The twofold role of diagrams in Euclid's plane geometry - HAL-SHS - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société
Article Dans Une Revue Synthese Année : 2012

The twofold role of diagrams in Euclid's plane geometry

Résumé

Proposition I.1 is, by far, the most popular example used to justify the thesis that many of Euclid's geometric arguments are diagram-based. Many scholars have recently articulated this thesis in different ways and argued for it. My purpose is to reformulate it in a quite general way, by describing what I take to be the twofold role that diagrams play in Euclid's plane geometry (EPG). Euclid's arguments are objectdependent. They are about geometric objects. Hence, they cannot be diagram-based unless diagrams are supposed to have an appropriate relation with these objects. I take this relation to be a quite peculiar sort of representation. Its peculiarity depends on the two following claims that I shall argue for: (i) The identity conditions of EPG objects are provided by the identity conditions of the diagrams that represent them; (ii) EPG objects inherit some properties and relations from these diagrams.

Domaines

Philosophie
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Dates et versions

hal-00192165 , version 1 (27-11-2007)
hal-00192165 , version 2 (12-08-2011)

Identifiants

Citer

Marco Panza. The twofold role of diagrams in Euclid's plane geometry. Synthese, 2012, 186 (1), pp.55-102. ⟨10.1007/s11229-012-0074-2⟩. ⟨hal-00192165v2⟩
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