UBC Faculty Research and Publications

Impotent numbers : Korean Confucian reactions to Jesuit mathematics Baker, Don

Abstract

Jesuit missionaries in Korea produced books introducing European mathematics in the hope that the logic behind that math would lead Confucians to accept the logic behind Catholicism as well. A look at how Korean Confucians reacted to those books reveals that they were able to separate mathematical formulae from the logic behind them. Western math was not an effective proselytizing tool.

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Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International