I recognize this fragment may indicate clumsy writing and relaying of the facts but the sentence as a whole is false. My thanks to Michael J DeLaurentis for his input.
Regards, Steven On Sun, Oct 19, 2014 at 8:43 AM, Benjamin Udell <[email protected]> wrote: > Steven, list, > > "during the semicentennial celebration of its founding in 1888 as the New > York Mathematical Society" > > That says that the founding itself was in 1888. The syntax would be > crossed up if "in 1888" referred to the speech and celebration while "as > the New York Mathematical Society" referred to the founding. Still, there's > a moment of ambiguity when the reader first reaches "in 1888," a moment of > ambiguity that could easily be missed by the sentence's writer precisely > because of her (presumable) awareness that the founding was in 1888 and the > celebration in 1938. > > By the way, _The New Elements of Mathematics_ and _Historical > Perspectives on Peirce's Logic of Science_, both Peirce collections > edited by Eisele, are back in print, at high prices. > > New Elements of Mathematics: > http://www.degruyter.com/view/serial/16677 > > Historical Perspectives on Peirce's Logic of Science: > http://www.degruyter.com/view/product/45174?format=KOM > > Best, Ben > > On 10/18/2014 11:56 PM, Steven Ericsson-Zenith wrote: > > In the "Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography | 2008" there is a > biography of Benjamin Peirce, written by Carolyn Eisele that begins: > > "In an address before the American Mathematical Society during the > semicentennial celebration of its founding in 1888 as the New York > Mathematical Society, G. D. Birkhoff spoke of Benjamin Peirce as having > been “by far the most influential scientific personage in America” and “a > kind of father of pure mathematics in our country.”" > > A copy of which can be found here: > http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Benjamin_Peirce.aspx > > However, G.D. Birkhoff, in many respect's Benjamin Peirce's heir as > leading American mathematician, was born only in 1884. This would make him > only 4 years old at the time and so it seems likely that there is an error > in this account. I suggest that Eisele is confused and means in fact G.D. > Birkhoff made this statement in September 1938, the actual > semicentennial celebration of the AMS. > > Any thoughts or comments welcome. > > Regards, > > Steven > > > > ----------------------------- > PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON > PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to > [email protected] . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L > but to [email protected] with the line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the > BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm > . > > > > > >
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