George Salmon

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The Reverend George Salmon (September 25, 1819 - January 22, 1904) was, firstly, a mathematician whose publications in algebraic geometry were widely read and influential in the 1850s to 1870s. But he was also an Anglican theologian who devoted himself mostly to theology for the last forty years of his life. His publications in theology were widely read too.

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[edit] Education

George Salmon was born in Cork City, Ireland. His father was a linen merchant. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin at the age of 19 with exceptionally high honours in mathematics. In 1841 at age 21 he was appointed to a position in the mathematics department at Trinity College Dublin. In 1845 he was appointed concurrently to a position in the theology department at Trinity College Dublin, having been confirmed in that year as an Anglican priest. He married in 1844.

[edit] Mathematics

In the late 1840s and the 1850s Salmon was in regular and frequent communication with Arthur Cayley and J.J. Sylvester. The three of them together with a small number of other mathematicians (including Charles Hermite) were developing a system for dealing with n-dimensional algebra and geometry. During this period Salmon published about 40 papers in journals. In these papers for the most part he solved narrowly defined, concrete problems in algebraic geometry, as opposed to more broadly systematic or foundational questions. But he was an early adopter of the foundational innovations of Cayley and the others.

In the 1850s Salmon published the following two books, which were soon translated and republished in several European languages. For a while they were simultaneously the state-of-the-art and the standard presentation of their subjects. In the titles of these books the word 'higher' is referring to high dimensions.

  • A treatise on higher plane curves: Intended as a sequel to a treatise on conic sections (1852)
  • Lessons introductory to the modern higher algebra (1859)

In 1889 Salmon received the Copley Medal, the highest honorary award in British science, but by 1889 Salmon had long ago quit math and science.

[edit] Theology

From the early 1860s onward Salmon was primarily occupied with theology. In 1866 he was appointed to a prestigious chair in theology at Trinity College Dublin, and gave up his mathematics department post at that point. In 1871 he accepted an additional post of chancellor of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.

One of his early publications in theolgy was in 1853 as a contributor to a book of rebuttals to the Catholic John Henry Newman's series Tracts for the Times. Arguments against Roman Catholicism were a recurring theme in Salmon's theology and culminated in his widely-read 1889 book Infallibility of the Church in which he argued that certain beliefs of the Roman church were absurd especially the beliefs in the infallibility of the church and the infallibility of the pope. Salmon also wrote books about eternal punishment, miracles, and interpretation of the New Testament. His book An Historical Introduction to the Study of the Books of the New Testament, which was widely read, is an account of the reception and interpretation of the gospels in the early centuries of Christianity as seen through the writings of leaders such as Irenaeus and Eusebius.

[edit] Bibliography

Sculpture of George Salmon in Trinity College Dublin
Sculpture of George Salmon in Trinity College Dublin
  • A treatise on conic sections (1848)
  • A treatise on higher plane curves: Intended as a sequel to a treatise on conic sections (1852)
  • Lessons introductory to the modern higher algebra (1859)
  • A treatise on the analytic geometry of three dimensions (1862)
  • The eternity of future punishment (1864)
  • The reign of law (1873)
  • Non-miraculous Christianity (1881)
  • Introduction to the New Testament (1885)
  • The infallibility of the Church (1889)
  • Thoughts on the textual criticism of the New Testament (1897)

[edit] External links