TY - JOUR TI - The growth of anti-mathematics sentiment at the beginning of the 19th century AU - Kocik, Agnieszka TI - The growth of anti-mathematics sentiment at the beginning of the 19th century AB - At the threshold of the nineteenth century, the collapse of the salons, the new gestalten of education, a new role of literature and the occurrence of the pre-romantic sensibility resulted in a remarkable increase of the yawning gap between the scientific communities and literary men. A prejudice against mathematics gave a new lease of life to the reintroduced belief that pursuing mathematics corrupts hearts and cools human imagination. The aim of the present paper is to restore the epistemic and ideological background that allows one to understand the terms of the debate and to identify opposing ideas. With this end in view, the paper focuses on the cultural and philosophical opinions of François-René de Chateaubriand whose The Genius of Christianity (1802) extremely polarizes the attitudes of supporters and opponents towards mathematical thinking and abilities. VL - Volume 20 (2020) IS - Volume 20, Issue 2 PY - 2020 SN - 1732-8705 C1 - 2084-3917 SP - 53 EP - 61 DO - 10.4467/20843917RC.20.006.12552 UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/romanica-cracoviensia/article/la-montee-du-sentiment-anti-mathematique-au-debut-du-xixe-siecle KW - anti-mathematics sentiment KW - arithmology KW - Ideologues KW - François-René de Chateaubriand KW - The Genius of Christianity KW - turn of the 18th and 19th centuries