Morris Kline

Morris Kline ( born May 1, 1908 in Brooklyn, † June 10, 1992 ) was an American mathematician who worked on history, philosophy and didactics of mathematics.

Kline was the son of an accountant, grew up in Brooklyn and Queens in New York City and studied at New York University (Bachelor 1930, Master 1932), where he received his doctorate in 1936. After that he was apart from 1938 to 1975 and later assistant professor at New York University, of a time during World War II as a civilian employee of the U.S. Army.

Kline is known by a variety of books in which he popularized the math. In educational matters, he underlined, always make the connections to applications in elementary school with mathematical puzzles and applications in sports in high school with probability and statistics and college physics and computers. In his book, Why Johnny can not add 1973 he criticized the arisen in the 1960s "new math ", whose thinking was influenced by Bourbaki. In Why the professor can not teach, he laments the educational deficit of many professors who are mainly under the pressure to publish research papers. His principal work is his comprehensive and detailed history of mathematics Mathematical Thought form Ancient to Modern Times from 1972 cultural trends in mathematics, he went in Mathematics -. Loss of the certainty of 1980 after.

He was married in 1939 and had two daughters.

Writings

  • By Irvin W. Kay: Introduction to Mathematics. Houghton Mifflin, 1937.
  • Mathematics in Western Culture. Oxford University Press, 1953.
  • Mathematics and the Physical World. T. Y. Crowell Co., 1959.
  • Mathematics, A Cultural Approach. Addison-Wesley, 1962.
  • With Irvin W. Kay: Electromagnetic Theory and Geometrical Optics. John Wiley and Sons, 1965.
  • Calculus, An intuitive and Physical Approach. John Wiley and Sons, 1967, 1977, Dover Publications 1998 ISBN 0-486-40453-6.
  • Mathematics for Liberal Arts. Addison -Wesley, 1967, republished as Mathematics for the Nonmathematician. Dover Publications, Inc., 1985, ISBN 0-486-24823-2.
  • Publisher: Mathematics in the Modern World - Readings from Scientific American. W. H. Freeman, 1968.
  • Mathematical Thought From Ancient to Modern Times. Oxford University Press, 1972.
  • Why Johnny Can not Add: The Failure of the New Mathematics. St. Martin's Press, 1973.
  • Why the professor can not teach: Mathematics and the dilemma of university education. St. Martin's Press, 1977, ISBN 0-312-87867-2.
  • Mathematics: An Introduction to Its Spirit and Use; readings from Scientific American.
  • With Abraham Wolf Crown: The Language of Shapes.
  • Mathematics and the Search for Knowledge.
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