From “Mixed” to “Applied” Mathematics: Tracing an important dimension of mathematics and its history

Abstract

The workshop investigated historical variations of the ways in which historically boundaries were drawn between ‘pure’ mathematics on the one hand and ‘mixed’ or ‘applied’ mathematics on the other from about 1500 until today. It brought together historians and philosophers of mathematics as well as several mathematicians working on applications. Emphasis was laid upon the clarification of the relation between the historical use and the historiographical usefulness and philosophical soundness of the various categories.