On the reception and spread of metaphysical explanations of imaginary numbers in Spain
- Pacheco Castelao, José Miguel
- Pérez Fernández, F. Javier
- Suárez, Carlos
ISSN: 1130-4723
Year of publication: 2006
Volume: 18
Issue: 1-2
Pages: 101-134
Type: Article
More publications in: Revista de la Academia Canaria de Ciencias: = Folia Canariensis Academiae Scientiarum
Abstract
The introduction in Spain of the ideas on complex quantities is documented through the work of José María Rey Heredia, a Professor of Logic and self'.-taught mathematician who wrote during his last life years the book Teoría Transcendental de las Cantidades Imaginarias. Rey was a follower of Kant and Krause, and tried to inscribe the development of the theory into the intellectual framework ofTranscendental Logic. His attempt is a lengthy and sometimes erroneous comment, on the Mémoire on imaginary quantities published by the Abbé Buée in the Philosophical Transactions the year 1806. Rey had a number of followers who introduced his ideas in teaching through the second half of the l 9'h Century as an aide to the introduction of various geometrical concepts.