Muriel Seltman

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Muriel Seltman (née Barnett; 27 March 1927 – 2 December 2019)[1] was British left-wing activist, mathematics educator, historian of mathematics, and author of books on mathematics, religion, politics, and philosophy.

Life[edit]

Seltman was born in Stamford Hill, a Jewish neighborhood of London,[2] on 27 March 1927.[1] She studied mathematics and mathematics education at Trinity College Dublin,[3][4] and met her husband there.[5] They joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1952,[6] but by the early 1960s had been expelled from the party for their anti-revisionism (sympathy for Maoism and opposition to the Khrushchev Thaw).[5] They traveled with their son to North Korea,[6] where Seltman worked as a teacher, but, bored with the North Korean cult of personality and their life there,[5] left for China in 1965, just in time for the Cultural Revolution. Disillusioned, they returned to England in 1966,[6] and Seltman later wrote a book What's Left? What's Right? describing her experiences.[5]

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.[2] 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,[7] 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).[8] 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).[9]

Although of Jewish descent, she became a nontheist Quaker, and despite her early experiences continued to describe herself as a Marxist.[10] She died on 2 December 2019.[1]

Books[edit]

Seltman's books include:

  • Piaget's Logic: A Critique of Genetic Epistemology (with Peter Seltman, George Allen & Unwin, 1985)[11]
  • Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis: An English Translation with Commentary (edited with Robert Goulding, Springer, 2007)[7]
  • What's Left? What's Right?: A Political Journey via North Korea and the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Dorrance Publishing, 2010)[2][5]
  • Bread and Roses: Nontheism and the Human Spirit (Matador, 2013)[2]
  • The Changing Faces of Antisemitism (Matador, 2015)
  • Rescuing God From Religion (Matador, 2016)[12]
  • Rescuing Jesus from Christianity (Matador, 2018)
  • Marx the Humanist (Troubador, 2019)

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Commemorating Muriel Seltman, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, December 2019, retrieved 2021-06-12
  2. ^ a b c d Chaffers, Eloise (June 2013), "Taking a break from algebraic symbolism, 86 year old Muriel Seltman has written a book on nontheism", SEnine, p. 18
  3. ^ See What's Left? What's Right?, p. 23
  4. ^ Sherlock, D.J.M. (2006). Trinity College Record Volume 2006. Dublin: Trinity College Dublin Press. ISBN 1-871408-07-5.
  5. ^ a b c d e Coyle, Kenny (29 June 2014), "Voyage of disillusion in search for political purity (review of What's Left? What's Right?)", Morning Star
  6. ^ a b c 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
  7. ^ a b Reviews of Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis:
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ WorldCat catalog entry for Descartes's "Regulae ad directionem ingenii" : a case-study in the emergence of early modern algebra, retrieved 2021-06-12
  10. ^ Seltman, Muriel (17 January 2019), "Quaker and Marxist?", The Friend
  11. ^ Reviews of Piaget's Logic:
  12. ^ Review of Rescuing God From Religion:
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