Periods in the Use of Euler-Type Diagrams

Abstract

Logicians commonly speak in a relatively undifferentiated way about pre-euler diagrams. the thesis of this paper, however, is that there were three periods in the early modern era in which euler-type diagrams (line diagrams as well as circle diagrams) were expansively used. expansive periods are characterized by continuity, and regressive periods by discontinuity: While on the one hand an ongoing awareness of the use of euler-type diagrams occurred within an expansive period, after a subsequent phase of regression the entire knowledge about the systematic application and the history of euler-type diagrams was lost. i will argue that the first expansive period lasted from Vives (1531) to Alsted (1614). the second period began around 1660 with Weigel and ended in 1712 with lange. the third period of expansion started around 1760 with the works of Ploucquet, euler and lambert. Finally, it is shown that euler-type diagrams became popular in the debate about intuition which took place in the 1790s between leibnizians and Kantians. the article is thus limited to the historical periodization between 1530 and 1800.

Logic, Spatial Algorithms and Visual Reasoning

“…It is Euler diagrams. This technique was probably already known by the twelfth century Baghdad scholar Abu'l-Barakāt al-Baghdādī and was rediscovered several times in the early modern period [18]. With Barakāt, one can also see how closely the diagrams are related to the understanding of an algorithm [12].…”

From Euler Diagrams in Schopenhauer to Aristotelian Diagrams in Logical Geometry

“…More detailed (and historically accurate) accounts of the history of Euler-type diagrams can be found in[2,3,21,22,23].…”