Les matemàtiques i els matemàtics de la Revolució Francesa

Abstract

The French Revolution undoubtedly constituted a political revolution of great transcendence but, while occuring between two scientific, and in particular, mathematical revolutions those of the seventeenth century, known as the "Century of Genius" and the nineteenth century, known as the "Golden Age" during the French Revolution itself there was no mathematical revolution. Nevertheless, the ideological background the Enlightenment upon which the French Revolution was based, was intimately intertwined with the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century whose mathematical roots are undeniable. Among the work which followed from the seventeenth century mathematical revolution, that of the French Revolutionaries is distinguished by its insistence of the need for an authentic mathematical revolution, if mathematics were to follow in the revolutionary line initiated in the seventeenth century. In addition, these men the mathematicians of the French Revolution participated in the functioning of government and fulfilled their political duties in the creation of new centres of teaching and research, amongst other important matters.