Muriel Seltman (née Barnett; 27 March 1927 – 2 December 2019) was a British left-wing activist, mathematics educator, historian of mathematics, and author of books on mathematics, religion, politics, and philosophy.
Life
Seltman was born in Stamford Hill, a Jewish neighborhood of London, on 27 March 1927. She studied mathematics and mathematics education at Trinity College Dublin, and met her husband there. They joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1952, but by the early 1960s had been expelled from the party for their anti-revisionism (sympathy for Maoism and opposition to the Khrushchev Thaw). They traveled with their son to North Korea, where Seltman worked as a teacher, but, bored with the North Korean cult of personality and their life there, left for China in 1965, just in time for the Cultural Revolution. Disillusioned, they returned to England in 1966, and Seltman later wrote a book What's Left? What's Right? describing her experiences.
She taught mathematics at Avery Hill College beginning in 1968, retiring in 1981 but continuing on a part-time basis for another 20 years, through the college's 1985 incorporation into the University of Greenwich. Her works in mathematics and the history of mathematics include a translation of a book on algebra by Thomas Harriot, originally published in 1631, a few years after Harriot's death. Co-editor Robert Goulding provided the translation, while Seltman was responsible for the book's detailed commentary on Harriot's work, with both translation and commentary based on a master's thesis she wrote at University College London, A Commentary on the Artis Analyticae Praxis of Thomas Harriot (1972). She also completed a PhD at University College London, with the dissertation Descartes's "Regulae ad directionem ingenii": a case-study in the emergence of early modern algebra (1987).
Although of Jewish descent, she became a nontheist Quaker, and despite her early experiences continued to describe herself as a Marxist. She died on 2 December 2019.
Books
Seltman's books include:
- Piaget's Logic: A Critique of Genetic Epistemology (with Peter Seltman, George Allen & Unwin, 1985)
- Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis: An English Translation with Commentary (edited with Robert Goulding, Springer, 2007)
- What's Left? What's Right?: A Political Journey via North Korea and the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Dorrance Publishing, 2010)
- Bread and Roses: Nontheism and the Human Spirit (Matador, 2013)
- The Changing Faces of Antisemitism (Matador, 2015)
- Rescuing God From Religion (Matador, 2016)
- Rescuing Jesus from Christianity (Matador, 2018)
- Marx the Humanist (Troubador, 2019)
References
- ^ Commemorating Muriel Seltman, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, December 2019, retrieved 2021-06-12
- ^ Chaffers, Eloise (June 2013), "Taking a break from algebraic symbolism, 86 year old Muriel Seltman has written a book on nontheism", SEnine, p. 18
- See What's Left? What's Right?, p. 23
- Sherlock, D.J.M. (2006). Trinity College Record Volume 2006. Dublin: Trinity College Dublin Press. ISBN 1-871408-07-5.
- ^ Coyle, Kenny (29 June 2014), "Voyage of disillusion in search for political purity (review of What's Left? What's Right?)", Morning Star
- ^ Owen, Lara (19 May 2016), 九旬英国共产党:我是怎样卷入中国文革的? (in Chinese), BBC
- ^ Reviews of Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis:
- Knobloch, Eberhard (2008), Mathematical Reviews, MR 2307972
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Schlote, Karl-Heinz, zbMATH, Zbl 1151.01006
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Stedall, Jacqueline A. (September 2007), "Review", MAA Reviews
- Knobloch, Eberhard (2008), Mathematical Reviews, MR 2307972
- See Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis, front matter, page v, and the references of Stedall, Jacqueline A. (June 2000), "Rob'd of glories: the posthumous misfortunes of Thomas Harriot and his algebra", Archive for History of Exact Sciences, 54 (6): 455–497, doi:10.1007/s004070050041, JSTOR 41134093, S2CID 123490351
- WorldCat catalog entry for Descartes's "Regulae ad directionem ingenii" : a case-study in the emergence of early modern algebra, retrieved 2021-06-12
- Seltman, Muriel (17 January 2019), "Quaker and Marxist?", The Friend
- Reviews of Piaget's Logic:
- Kitchener, Richard F. (June 1991), British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 42 (2): 285–290, doi:10.1093/bjps/42.2.285, JSTOR 688061
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - Spiro, Avron (January 1986), "Making sense of Piaget's critics", The Review of Education, 12 (1): 25–29, doi:10.1080/0098559860120106
- Kitchener, Richard F. (June 1991), British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 42 (2): 285–290, doi:10.1093/bjps/42.2.285, JSTOR 688061
- Review of Rescuing God From Religion:
- Gilmore, Alec (7 April 2017), "Book reviews", Baptist Times, Baptists Together