Gerrit Mannoury (17 May 1867 – 30 January 1956) was a Dutch

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

, professor at the

University of Amsterdam The University of Amsterdam (abbreviated as UvA, nl, Universiteit van Amsterdam) is a public research university located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The UvA is one of two large, publicly funded research universities in the city, the other being ...

and

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

, known as the central figure in the signific circle, a Dutch counterpart of the

Vienna circle The Vienna Circle (german: Wiener Kreis) of Logical Empiricism was a group of elite philosophers and scientists drawn from the natural and social sciences, logic and mathematics who met regularly from 1924 to 1936 at the University of Vienna, cha ...

.Jan Siegenbeek van Heukelom & Gerard Alberts (2000)
''Correspondentie David van Dantzig-Gerrit Mannoury : historische notitie SEN''
CWI The Netherlands.

Biography

Gerrit Mannoury was born on 17 May 1867 in

Wormerveer Wormerveer is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Zaanstad, and lies about 13 km northwest of Amsterdam. Wormerveer developed in the 15th century on the west bank of the Zaan river. It started t ...

, and died on 30 January 1956 in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

. On 8 August 1907 he married Elizabeth Maria Berkelbach van der Sprenkel, with whom he had three daughters and a son, Jan Mannoury. His father Gerrit Mannoury, a sea-captain, had died in China when he was three years old.Ger Harmsen, Gerrit Voerman (1998)
"Gerrit Mannoury"
In: ''Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme''. p. 137–141. He attended the Hogere Burgerschool (HBS) in Amsterdam, where he graduated in 1885. The same year he received a Teacher's Degree in Accounting and in Mechanics. In 1902 he also received a Teacher's Degree in Mathematics. Mannoury was a self-educated mathematician. Because he was a teacher he couldn't attend lessons at the University of Amsterdam. He did receive private lessons from

Diederik Korteweg Diederik Johannes Korteweg (31 March 1848 – 10 May 1941) was a Dutch mathematician. He is now best remembered for his work on the Korteweg–de Vries equation, together with Gustav de Vries. Early life and education Diederik Korteweg's father ...

. He was awarded a PhD in Mathematics late in life, in 1946, with

L.E.J. Brouwer Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (; ; 27 February 1881 – 2 December 1966), usually cited as L. E. J. Brouwer but known to his friends as Bertus, was a Dutch mathematician and philosopher, who worked in topology, set theory, measure theory and compl ...

as his promotores. Mannoury was a committed socialist throughout his life. In 1901 he helped to found the scientific bureau of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), of which he was secretary until 1906. In 1909 Mannoury left the SDAP with Orthodox Marxist opposition, and took a seat on the party board of the newly founded

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SDP). After the Russian

October Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment ...

, the SDP renamed itself in 1918 to the

Communist Party of Holland The Communist Party of the Netherlands ( nl, Communistische Partij Nederland, , CPN) was a Dutch communist party. The party was founded in 1909 as the Social-Democratic Party (SDP) and merged with the Pacifist Socialist Party, the Political Party ...

(CPH) (later the Communist Party of the Netherlands). Mannoury started working in

primary education Primary education or elementary education is typically the first stage of formal education, coming after preschool/kindergarten and before secondary school. Primary education takes place in ''primary schools'', ''elementary schools'', or first ...

Bloemendaal Bloemendaal () is a municipality and a town in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Bloemendaal is, together with Wassenaar, the wealthiest place in the Netherlands. In October 2015, after persistent problems with the local governa ...

and

Helmond Helmond (; called ''Héllemond'' in the local dialect) is a city and municipality in the Metropoolregio Eindhoven of the province of North Brabant in the Southern Netherlands. Helmond is home to several textile and metal companies. The Vlisco fa ...

. In 1910 he started teaching at the Hoogere Burger School (HBS) at

Vlissingen Vlissingen (; zea, label=Zeelandic, Vlissienge), historically known in English as Flushing, is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic l ...

. In 1902 he had been appointed privaatdocent at the

and in 1917 he was made professor there. In 1932 Mannoury was disbarred from the Communist Party for supporting the exiled

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...

. Following this event, Mannoury's political activity was mostly centered for the abolition of the death penalty. He retired in 1937. He lectured on the philosophy of mathematics, and on mechanics, analytics and descriptive and

projective geometry In mathematics, projective geometry is the study of geometric properties that are invariant with respect to projective transformations. This means that, compared to elementary Euclidean geometry, projective geometry has a different setting, pro ...

.Erik Heijerman (1988) "Relativism and significs: Gerrit Mannoury of the foundations of mathematics". In: ''Essays on Significs: Papers Presented on the Occasion of the 150th Anniversary of the Birth of Victoria Lady Welby (1837-1912)''. H. Walter Schmitz, Victoria Welby. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 1988. p.247-270. Mannoury was, with

, one of the most important teachers of

Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer (; ; 27 February 1881 – 2 December 1966), usually cited as L. E. J. Brouwer but known to his friends as Bertus, was a Dutch mathematician and philosopher, who worked in topology, set theory, measure theory and compl ...

at Amsterdam University, Mannoury especially philosophically. The first appearance of the names "

formalism Formalism may refer to: * Form (disambiguation) * Formal (disambiguation) * Legal formalism, legal positivist view that the substantive justice of a law is a question for the legislature rather than the judiciary * Formalism (linguistics) * Scient ...

" and "

intuitionism In the philosophy of mathematics, intuitionism, or neointuitionism (opposed to preintuitionism), is an approach where mathematics is considered to be purely the result of the constructive mental activity of humans rather than the discovery of fu ...

" in Brouwer's writings, were in a review of Gerrit Mannoury's book ''Methodologisches und Philosophisches zur Elementar-Mathematik'' (Methodological and philosophical remarks on elementary mathematics) from 1909."Luitzen Egbertus Jan Brouwer"
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2003–2005. Two other Dutch scientists he inspired were philosopher and logician Evert W. Beth and psychologist

Adriaan de Groot Adrianus Dingeman (Adriaan) de Groot (Santpoort, 26 October 1914 – Schiermonnikoog, 14 August 2006) was a Dutch chess master and psychologist, who conducted some of the most famous chess experiments of all time in the 1940s-60. In 1946 he ...

. He died in Amsterdam.

Work

Mannoury's main inspirations were

G. W. F. Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

, G.J.P.J. Bolland and

F. H. Bradley Francis Herbert Bradley (30 January 1846 – 18 September 1924) was a British idealist philosopher. His most important work was ''Appearance and Reality'' (1893). Life Bradley was born at Clapham, Surrey, England (now part of the Greater ...

. He was also inspired by the work of

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...

Baruch Spinoza Baruch (de) Spinoza (born Bento de Espinosa; later as an author and a correspondent ''Benedictus de Spinoza'', anglicized to ''Benedict de Spinoza''; 24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677) was a Dutch philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin, b ...

, the French mathematician philosopher of science

Henri Poincaré Jules Henri Poincaré ( S: stress final syllable ; 29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The ...

and the English positivism of

Bertrand Russell Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, logician, and public intellectual. He had a considerable influence on mathematics, logic, set theory, linguistics, ...

. Mannoury combined a logical-mathematical way of thinking with a deep insight into the human soul.

Publications

Mannoury was a prolific and polymathic writer who published books, articles, reviews, and pamphlets.Pieter Wisse
Mannoury's significs, or a philosophy of communal individualism
' * 1903. ''Over de beteekenis der wiskundige logica voor de philosophie'' * 1907. ''Het Boeddhisme: Overzicht van leer en geschiedenis'' * 1909. ''Methodologisches und Philosophisches zur Elementar-Mathematik'' * 1910. ''Methodologiese aantekeningen over het dubbel-boekhouden'' * 1917

Inaugural lecture held at the University of Amsterdam, 8 Oct 1917. * 1919. ''Wiskunst, filosofie en socialisme: overdrukken'' * 1925

* 1927. ''Willen en weten: overdrukken'' * 1930. ''Heden is het keerpunt: een onuitgesproken verdedigingsrede'' * 1931. ''Woord en gedachte: een inleiding tot de signifika, inzonderheid met het oog op het onderwĳs in de wiskunde'' * 1938. ''Zur Enzyklopädie der Einheitswissenschaft''. Vorträge, with

Otto Neurath Otto Karl Wilhelm Neurath (; 10 December 1882 – 22 December 1945) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, sociologist, and political economist. He was also the inventor of the ISOTYPE method of pictorial statistics and an innovator in mu ...

, E. Brunswik, C. Hull, and J. Woodger. * 1946. ''Relativisme en dialektiek: schema ener filosofisch-sociologische grondslagenleer'' * 1947. ''Les fondements psycho-linguistiques des mathématiques'' * 1947. ''Handboek der analytische significa, deel I: Geschiedenis der begripskritiek'' * 1948. ''Handboek der analytische significa, deel II: Hoofdbegrippen en methoden der significa: Ontogenese en fylogenese van het verstandshoudingsapparaat'' * 1948. ''De dood als zegepraal : opstellen over de massa-edukatieve zĳde van het doodstrafprobleem'' * 1949. ''Signifika: een inleiding'' * 1953, ''Polairpsychologische begripssynthese''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mannoury, Gerrit 1867 births 1956 deaths 20th-century Dutch mathematicians 20th-century Dutch philosophers Dutch communists Philosophers of mathematics People from Zaanstad University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of the University of Amsterdam

Biography

Work

Publications

References

Further reading

External links