Mathematics at the Literary and Philosophical Societies

Abstract

Abstract During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, so-called Literary and Philosophical Societies (‘Lit & Phils’) emerged in many towns and cities across the British Isles. Their goal was to promote the understanding of a range of subjects at the local level, with science, broadly defined, usually being the major focus. The organizers of these societies often professed an interest in all strands of knowledge—including mathematics. In practice, however, the lecture programme of a typical Lit & Phil rarely featured topics that might permit any mathematical content, and where mathematics did appear, it was usually with a strongly practical or educational bias. Nevertheless, there are notable exceptions: the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, for instance, regularly featured lectures on mathematical topics. In this chapter, I offer a preliminary account of the handling of mathematics by a number of Lit & Phils, compare this briefly with the central position occupied by mathematics at meetings of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and reflect on the disciplinary biases of these societies.