Muriel Seltman

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Muriel Seltman (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[]

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]​ and met her husband there.[4]​ They joined the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1952,[5]​ but by the early 1960s had been expelled from the party for their anti-revisionism (sympathy for Maoism and opposition to the Khrushchev Thaw).[4]​ They traveled with their son to North Korea,[5]​ where Seltman worked as a teacher, but, bored with the North Korean cult of personality and their life there,[4]​ left for China in 1965, just in time for the Cultural Revolution. Disillusioned, they returned to England in 1966,[5]​ and Seltman later wrote a book What's Left? What's Right? describing her experiences.[4]​

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,[6]​ 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).[7]​ 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).[8]​

Although of Jewish descent, she became a nontheist Quaker, and despite her early experiences continued to describe herself as a Marxist.[9]​ She died on 2 December 2019.[1]​

Books[]

Seltman's books include:

  • Piaget's Logic: A Critique of Genetic Epistemology (with Peter Seltman, George Allen & Unwin, 1985)[10]​
  • Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis: An English Translation with Commentary (edited with Robert Goulding, Springer, 2007)[6]​
  • What's Left? What's Right?: A Political Journey via North Korea and the Chinese Cultural Revolution (Dorrance Publishing, 2010)[2]​[4]​
  • Bread and Roses: Nontheism and the Human Spirit (Matador, 2013)[2]​
  • The Changing Faces of Antisemitism (Matador, 2015)
  • Rescuing God From Religion (Matador, 2016)[11]​
  • Rescuing Jesus from Christianity (Matador, 2018)
  • Marx the Humanist (Troubador, 2019)

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c Commemorating Muriel Seltman, Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain, December 2019, retrieved 2021-06-12
  2. ^ Jump up to: 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. ^ Jump up to: 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
  5. ^ Jump up to: 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
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Reviews of Thomas Harriot's Artis Analyticae Praxis:
  7. ^ 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, JSTOR 41134093
  8. ^ WorldCat catalog entry for Descartes's "Regulae ad directionem ingenii" : a case-study in the emergence of early modern algebra, retrieved 2021-06-12
  9. ^ Seltman, Muriel (17 January 2019), "Quaker and Marxist?", The Friend
  10. ^ Reviews of Piaget's Logic:
  11. ^ Review of Rescuing God From Religion:
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