Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis

Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis (28 October 1892 in

Career

Dijksterhuis studied mathematics at the University of Groningen from 1911 to 1918. His Ph.d. thesis was entitled "A Contribution to the Knowledge of the Flat Helicoid."^[1]

From 1916 to 1953 he was a professor and taught mathematics, physics and cosmography. He advocated changes in the way mathematics was taught to reinforce its formal characteristics. In 1950, he was appointed as a German member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[2] In 1953, he was appointed to teach mathematics history and the nature of science at Utrecht University and in 1955 at Leiden University.

His first biography was on the life and work of Archimedes, published in Dutch in 1938. It was translated into English by C. Dikshoorn in 1956, published in Copenhagen by Munksgard.^[3] Princeton University Press republished it, with additional commentary, in 1987.^[4]

In 1943 he wrote on the life and times of Simon Stevin, again first in Dutch, which Dikshoorn translated for English publication in 1970.

Upon the completion of

In 1950 Dijkserhuis published De mechanisering van het wereldbeeld (Dutch language) which was positively reviewed in a French journal.^[5] In 1956 Springer books produced a German translation, and in 1961 The Mechanization of the World Picture appeared in English. "Dijksterhuis’s primary interest is in the conflict and evolution of ideas as Aristotelian conceptions rose to dominance and then were overthrown ... Within the limited framework that Dijksterhuis chose for his work he has produced a masterpiece of lasting value ... Dijksterhuis knows the contents of a tremendous number of philosophical and scientific works, understands the physical concepts involved, and is aware of their interrelationships."^[6]

In 1962 Dijksterhuis was awarded the Sarton Medal by the History of Science Society.

Bibliography

• 1929 - De Elementen van Euclides (The Elements of Euclid)
• 1924 - Val en worp (Free Fall and Projectile Motion)
• 1938 - Archimedes
• 1943 – Simon Stevin (Dutch biography)
• 1950 - Mechanisering van het wereldbeeld
• 1952 - Betekenis van de wis- en natuurkunde voor het leven en denken van Blaise Pascal
• 1953 – "Christiaan Huygens", Centaurus 2(3): 265–282
• 1961 - The Mechanization of the World Picture C. Dikshoorn translator, via Internet Archive
• 1963 - (with
  R. J. Forbes) History of Science and Technology (2 volumes, Penguin Books
  )
• 1970 - Simon Stevin: Science in the Netherlands around 1600
• 1990 - Clio's stiefkind

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Eduard Jan Dijksterhuis.

• E. J. Dijksterhuis at PhilPapers
• Klaas van Berkel (in Dutch) Dijksterhuis, Eduard Jan (1892-1965)
• R. Hooykaas (in Dutch) [1] in Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands
• Klaas van Berkel (2005) Het Gids Debuut van Dijksterhuis Archived 2019-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, De Gids no. 3/4/2005