彼得吕斯·拉米斯Petrus Ramus

拉米斯也被称为彼得吕斯·拉米斯和Pierre de la Ramée。后一个名字是他出生时被赋予的。

拉米斯的父亲Jacques de la Ramée是一名劳工，母亲是Jeanne Charpentier。Jacques de la Ramée拥有头衔却作为劳工工作，这听起来可能有点奇怪。这是因为家族在1468年列日被毁时失去了钱财，但仍保留了头衔。

拉米斯在家接受教育，直到1527年十二岁时进入巴黎的纳瓦拉学院。他于1536年毕业，获得硕士学位，答辩了一篇关于亚里士多德的论文。此后，拉米斯先后在芒斯学院和圣母领报学院任教。他的教学旨在攻击亚里士多德，特别是亚里士多德的逻辑学。他在三部著作中发表了自己的观点，包括1543年的Aristotelicae animadversiones，此后弗朗索瓦一世禁止他教授或出版哲学。

是数学和瘟疫救了拉米斯。数学——因为当他被禁止教授和出版哲学时，他转向了数学；瘟疫——因为它造成了人员短缺，导致拉米斯被重新任命为教师。1547年，红衣主教Charles de Lorraine向亨利二世呼吁解除对拉米斯的禁令，这确实发生了。随后他被任命到普雷勒学院，并很快成为该学院的院长。拉米斯不仅重新成为教师，还重新开始出版文本。当然，反对他观点的人仍然强烈攻击他，这些攻击在他1551年被任命为法兰西公学院的哲学与雄辩术皇家教授后变得更加强烈。

1562年，拉米斯的教学日益涉及政治和宗教问题，他放弃了天主教会，改宗加尔文主义。这一年，他提出了对巴黎大学教学和结构的重大改革。他确信数学对所有学问都具有根本重要性，于是提议在巴黎大学设立一个数学讲席。后来，他用自己的钱资助了这个讲席。

拉米斯提出的其他改革包括废除学生学费（450年后，这再次成为英国激烈辩论的话题！）。他还提议改革文科教学大纲，其中包括大量物理学和其他科学的内容。然而，政治事件介入，法国宗教战争开始了。天主教支持者吉斯公爵率武装部队控制了巴黎的王室。胡格诺派在法国各地发动起义。吉斯公爵残酷处置阴谋分子。1562年底，由于加尔文主义者被命令离开该城，拉米斯因担心性命而被迫逃离巴黎。他去了枫丹白露。宗教战争双方于1562年12月进行了德勒战役，随后寻求和平解决。

尽管吉斯公爵被一名新教狂热分子刺杀，但1563年3月仍签署了昂布瓦斯和约。该和约给予胡格诺派某些良心权利，拉米斯认为这足以让他返回巴黎。有一段时间他试图保持低调，但当他的一个对手被任命为钦定数学讲席时，拉米斯反对这一任命，但失败了。随着宗教战争中紧张局势再次升级，拉米斯于1567年第二次逃离巴黎。

加尔文教徒的处境恶化，1568年爆发了第三次宗教战争。拉米斯短暂返回巴黎，发现他的藏书被毁，便请求国王允许他前往德国。拉米斯于1568年至1570年间照此行事，但就在那一年，另一项条约——圣索菲·热尔曼和约——于8月签署。拉米斯觉得返回巴黎再次安全，便从国王那里获得了保护的承诺，尽管他再次被禁止教学。1572年，三千名胡格诺派教徒聚集在巴黎，庆祝瓦卢瓦的玛格丽特与纳瓦拉的亨利的婚礼。他们在圣巴托罗缪节前夕遭到屠杀，尽管有国王的保护，拉米斯仍被雇用的刺客谋杀。正如拉米斯在[6]中所写：-

他作为新教殉道者而死，对他后来的声誉产生了相当大的影响。他的著作被大量重印，并在德国新教地区、英国和新英格兰一直影响到十七世纪。

拉米斯对当时大学所教授的文科课程提出的改革是回归七种古典自由艺术，但教学大纲更多地基于应用主题。他将“方法”发展为一个教学概念，将理论引向实际问题所需的方向。在他1546年写的一篇文章中，拉米斯将他的方法概念描述为：-

……以这样的方式组织不同的事物，使得整个主题可以更容易地被感知和教授。

运用这一哲学，他提出用以下三条“方法定律”来重组七艺：-

(i) 只能包含真实且必要的事物；

(ii) 必须包含属于所讨论艺术的所有事物，且仅包含这些事物；

(iii) 一般事物须以一般方式处理，特殊事物须以特殊方式处理。

运用这种方法，拉米斯研究了许多主题，并撰写了一整套关于逻辑与修辞、语法、数学、天文学和光学的教科书。

有理由问拉米斯对数学有多重要。似乎没有任何以他命名的定理，而且确实他不被认为是一位发现新事实的原创数学家。然而，这并不妨碍他重要，最近的研究表明，他对数学发展的影响比曾经认为的要大。著作4致力于考察拉米斯对数学的贡献。

拉米斯认为数学学习已经衰落，这在很大程度上归因于柏拉图，因为他拒绝考虑数学的应用。鉴于这些观点，他1569年的几何教科书包含对欧几里得的Elements的强烈批评就不足为奇了。

在确定了问题之后，拉米斯旨在改进数学教学。为了实现这一目标，他计划准备古典数学文本的版本。他撰写了关于算术、代数和几何的教科书，目的是只包含可以应用于工艺的定理。严格的证明对拉米斯来说并不重要，他更喜欢“自然方法”。并不是他不相信理论数学，而是他只看到当它与应用结合时才是重要的。他研究了巴黎商人和工匠的方法，以便选择直接适用的材料。

拉米斯认为数学应该应用于的主题之一是天文学。他似乎是最早相信太阳系日心说的人之一。他不赞成使用理论假设来决定理论之间的取舍，而是主张将理论建立在观测证据的基础上。

正如马奥尼在1中所写：-

通过强调数学的核心重要性，并坚持将科学理论应用于实际问题的解决，拉米斯帮助确立了对自然可操作知识的追求，这正是科学革命的标志。

Peter Ramus is also known as Petrus Ramus and as Pierre de la Ramée. This latter name is the one he was given at birth.

Peter Ramus's father Jacques de la Ramée was a labourer and his mother was Jeanne Charpentier. It might sound a little strange that Jacques de la Ramée was titled, yet worked as a labourer. This came about because the family had lost their money in 1468 when Liège was destroyed, yet they kept their title.

Ramus was educated at home until, in 1527 at the age of twelve years, he entered the Collège de Navarre in Paris. He graduated with a Master's Degree in 1536, defending a thesis on Aristotle. After this Ramus taught, first at the Collège de Mans, then at the Collège de l'Ave Maria. His teaching was aimed at attacking Aristotle and in particular Aristotle's logic. He published his views in three works including Aristotelicae animadversiones in 1543, and following this he was forbidden to teach or publish philosophy by Francis I.

It was mathematics and the plague which came to Ramus's rescue. Mathematics since when he was forbidden to teach and publish philosophy he turned to mathematics, and the plague for it created staff shortages which resulted in Ramus being reinstated as a teacher. In 1547 Cardinal Charles de Lorraine appealed to Henry II to have the ban against Ramus lifted and indeed this happened. He was then appointed to the Collège de Presles, and he soon became head of the College. Not only was Ramus back as a teacher, but he also returned to publishing texts. Of course those opposed to his views still strongly attacked him and these attacks became even stronger after he was appointed as Regius Professor of Philosophy and Eloquence at the Collège de France in 1551.

In 1562 Ramus, whose teaching were becoming more involved with political and religious issues, abandoned the Catholic Church and became a convert to Calvinism. In this year he proposed major reforms in the teaching and structure of the University of Paris. Convinced that mathematics was a subject of fundamental importance to all of learning, he proposed a chair of mathematics at the University. Later he would endow this chair with his own money.

Other changes which Ramus proposed was the abolition of student fees (which 450 years later is again a topic of vigorous debate in Britain!). He also proposed changes to the arts syllabus which included a large component of physics and other sciences. Political events were to intervene, however, as the French Wars of Religion began. The Duc de Guise, a Catholic supporter, with his armed forces took control of the royal family in Paris. There were uprisings by the Huguenots around France. Conspirators were ruthlessly dealt with by the Duc de Guise. Near the end of 1562, Ramus was forced to flee Paris for fear of his life as the Calvinists were ordered out of the city. He went to Fontainebleau. The two sides in the War of Religion fought the Battle of Dreux in December 1562 and then looked for a peaceful settlement.

Despite the assassination of the Duke de Guise by a Protestant fanatic, the Peace of Amboise was signed in March 1563. It granted certain rights of conscience to the Huguenots and Ramus saw it as sufficient to allow him to return to Paris. For a while he tried to keep a low profile but when one of his opponents was appointed to the Regius Chair of Mathematics, Ramus opposed the appointment, but lost. With tensions rising again in the religious wars, Ramus fled Paris for a second time in 1567.

The situation for the Calvinists deteriorated and a third religious war broke out in 1568. Ramus returned briefly to Paris, found his library destroyed, and requested permission from the King to visit Germany. This Ramus did from 1568 to 1570, but in that year another treaty, the Peace of Saint-Germain, was signed in August. Feeling that it was again safe to return to Paris, Ramus gained the promise of protection from the King although he was again banned from teaching. In 1572 three thousand Huguenots assembled in Paris to celebrate the marriage of Marguerite de Valois to Henry III of Navarre. They were massacred on the eve of the feast St Bartholomew and, despite his royal protection, Ramus was murdered by hired assassins. As Mack writes in [6]:-

That he died a Protestant martyr had considerable consequences for his later reputation. His works were massively reprinted and became very influential in Protestant parts of Germany, in Britain and in New England well into the seventeenth century.

The changes which Ramus proposed to the Arts courses taught at universities at that time was a return to the seven classical liberal arts, but with the syllabus more based on applied topics. He developed "method" as a pedagogical concept taking theory towards that required for practical problems. In a text that he wrote in 1546 Ramus describes his concept of methods as:-

... the organisation of different things in such a way that the whole subject may be more easily perceived and taught.

Using this philosophy he proposed to reorganise the seven liberal arts using the following three "laws of method":-

(i) only things which are true and necessary may be included;

(ii) all and only things which belong to the art in question must be included;

(iii) general things must be dealt with in a general way, particular things in a particular way.

Using this approach Ramus worked on many topics and wrote a whole series of textbooks on logic and rhetoric, grammar, mathematics, astronomy, and optics.

It is reasonable to ask how important Ramus is for mathematics. There do not seem to be any theorems named after him, and indeed he is not considered to have been an original mathematician discovering new facts. This does not prevent him from being important, however, and recent work has suggested that he had a more major influence on the development of mathematics than had been once thought. The book [4] is devoted to considering Ramus's contribution to mathematics.

Ramus believed that learning in mathematics had declined, and this was due in large part to Plato because of his refusal to consider applications of mathematics. Given these views it is not surprising that his 1569 textbook on geometry contained strong criticisms of Euclid's Elements.

Having identified the problems, Ramus aimed to improve mathematical instruction. In order to achieve this he planned to prepare editions of classical mathematical texts. He wrote textbooks on arithmetic, algebra and geometry with the aim of including only theorems which could be applied to the crafts. Rigorous proof was of little importance to Ramus who preferred a "natural method". It was not that he did not believe in theoretical mathematics, but he only saw that it was of importance when it was placed in conjunction with applications. He studied the methods of the tradesmen and craftsmen in Paris in order to choose the directly applicable material.

One of the topics which Ramus believed that mathematics should be applied to was astronomy. He seems to have been an early believer of the heliocentric theory of the solar system. He did not favour using theoretical hypotheses to decide between theories, but advocated basing theories on observational evidence.

As Mahoney writes in [1]:-

By emphasising the central importance of mathematics and by insisting on the application of scientific theory to practical problem solving, Ramus helped to formulate the quest for operational knowledge of nature that marks the Scientific Revolution.