This article is devoted to the study of the international symposium on "Prob-ability Calculus and its Applications," organised by Maurice Fr & eacute;chet at the Insti-tut des Sciences Financi & egrave;res et d'Assurances in Lyon in 1948. I propose severallevels of interpretation. First, I show how the event fits into the plan to rebuildFrench research on the international scene in a post-war context. Next, I ex-plain how this conference can be considered the third chapter of the pre-warGeneva meetings, revealing both continuities and breaks in research on prob-ability. Archives reveal that Fr & eacute;chet sought to use the event to enable the Lyoninstitute to keep up with the boom in mathematical economics research in Parisand the United States-an attempt that met with only limited success. Finally,I show that the conference programme reflects the state of the French prob-abilist school, whose members were then sought after in applied sectors thatwere strategic for the country's sovereignty, but to the detriment of fundamen-tal research.
During his 1929-1930 course at the Chair of Probability Calculus and Math-ematical Physics in Paris, Maurice Fr & eacute;chet proposed an axiomatisation of prob-ability using the concept of additive functions of sets on additive families of sets.This article analyses the conditions (institutional, pedagogical and mathemat-ical) that led to the formulation of this axiomatisation and highlights the closeand joint involvement of teaching and research
This paper attempts an improved classification of the Latin textsof the Elements printed between 1482 and 1703. It uses primarily a comparisonof the 114 terms defined within the text, supplemented by a comparison of thenumber of definitions included in each book and spot-check comparison ofportions of the text and diagrams. The result is a classification into fourteenfamilies. The process of classification permits some reflections on the degree towhich the Latin Euclidean vocabulary stabilized during this period, and on thepractices of the editors of these versions of the text, which prove to have been ina high proportion of cases eclectic, with definitions, enunciations, proofs anddiagrams frequently based on different sources or modified idiosyncratically,even in cases where a specific model was named in the paratext.
We discuss the emergence of Hilbert's 6th problem and Hilbert'spresentation of Bohlmann's axioms. An improved version of the axioms,which appeared in 1908, has been largely ignored by history. It overlaps withKolmogorov's "Grundbegriffe".
This article explores the daily life and career of Andreas B & ouml;hm(1720-1790), a Wolffian polymath who was professor of philosophy and math-ematics at the University of Gie ss en. B & ouml;hm represents the "ordinary" professorat work, and his career exemplifies the practice of mathematics in 18th-centuryGerman universities. He published several textbooks, trained local surveyors,edited a scholarly journal and even entertained scholarly correspondence witha German countess. Using a large set of archival sources, we follow the negoti-ation of his academic chair and document in detail his teaching activities-aswell as his lasting influence on surveying and practical geometry. By examiningB & ouml;hm's multifaceted career, the article challenges the notion of 18th-centuryuniversities as stagnant, instead portraying them as dynamic centers of mathe-matical education and expertise, deeply embedded in the needs of local societies
