Scribner Seminar Program
Course Description
The Non-Euclidean Revolution
Instructor(s): Mark Huibregtse, Mathematics
Can human beings know anything with absolute certainty? How about Euclidean geometry?
The theorems of geometry are proven using clear, rigorous logical reasoning, starting
from a small number of obvious axioms. If Euclidean geometry were in doubt, then the
very possibility of certain knowledge of anything might well be in doubt as well.
Indeed, the discovery (in the early 1800s) that Euclidean geometry might not be a
perfect description of physical space led to deep reappraisal of the relationships
among mathematics, natural science, and physical reality, and changed the way we view
the world—no less profoundly than did the Darwinian revolution in biology or the Copernican
revolution in astronomy. We will study the Non-Euclidian Revolution from mathematical,
philosophical, and historical perspectives, and thereby explore the nature of, and
the human search for, truth.
Course Offered