Today, 01:55 AM
Lincoln, Euclid, and the Satisfaction of Success
Summary
In his article "Lincoln, Euclid, and the Satisfaction of Success," Glenn W. LaFantasie examines how Abraham Lincoln's self-directed study and near-mastery of Euclid’s Elements after his term in Congress in the late 1840s and early 1850s served as a transformative intellectual endeavor that shaped his career as a lawyer and politician.
Driven by a lifelong insecurity regarding his lack of formal higher education as well as a desire to sharpen his logical discipline, Lincoln immersed himself in Euclidean geometry to rigorously understand the precise nature of visual proof and "demonstration." LaFantasie argues that this rigorous mental training refined Lincoln’s legal reasoning and rhetoric—enabling him to construct tightly argued, airtight political speeches against slavery—while offering a nuanced historical perspective that balances contemporary accounts (such as those by William Herndon and John P. Gulliver) against modern scholarly interpretations of Lincoln's intellectual motivations.
ARTICLE
Summary
In his article "Lincoln, Euclid, and the Satisfaction of Success," Glenn W. LaFantasie examines how Abraham Lincoln's self-directed study and near-mastery of Euclid’s Elements after his term in Congress in the late 1840s and early 1850s served as a transformative intellectual endeavor that shaped his career as a lawyer and politician.
Driven by a lifelong insecurity regarding his lack of formal higher education as well as a desire to sharpen his logical discipline, Lincoln immersed himself in Euclidean geometry to rigorously understand the precise nature of visual proof and "demonstration." LaFantasie argues that this rigorous mental training refined Lincoln’s legal reasoning and rhetoric—enabling him to construct tightly argued, airtight political speeches against slavery—while offering a nuanced historical perspective that balances contemporary accounts (such as those by William Herndon and John P. Gulliver) against modern scholarly interpretations of Lincoln's intellectual motivations.
ARTICLE
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