Does anyone know the name of any ancient philosophers that dealt with the concept of zero?

Question

anyone who provided any type of contextual work, concrete study or otherwise dealing the with concept of '0' zero, or its application, founding, etc

Answer 1

The origin of our current notation for the number zero is unknown, though it is presumed to have originated in India with Hindu mathematicians, somewhere between 500 and 800 A.D. Later the Hindu numerals were employed by the Arabs (and became called "Arabic numerals"), and from them spread into European mathematics.

Check out

Pierre de Fermat

Al- Khwarizmi- He was a Persian mathematician, he helped bring the idea of zero into mathmatics although a symbol for zero had been introduced by the Babylonians.

Check out Rene Descartes as well, he developed many of Al-Khwarizmi's mathematical ideas 800 years later, so you may find something of use with him.

I hope this is of some help.

Answer 2

how about this one?

the Mayans may have been one of the first to utilize 0.

The Mayas of Yucatan were the first people besides the Indians to use a zero sign and represent number values by the position of basic symbols. The similarity between the Indian zero and the Mayan zero is indeed striking. So far as the logical principle is concerned, the two are identical, but the expressions of the principle are dissimilar. Again, whilst the Indian system of notation was decimal, as was the European, the Mayan was vigesimal. Consequently, their 100 stood for 400, 1000 stood for 8000, 1234 for 8864. While the place of zero in the respective systems of the Indians and Mayans is different, the underlying principle and method are the same and the common origin of the Mayan and Indian zeros appears to be undoubted. Disputes continue amongst scholars in the absence of conclusive evidence. As chronological evidence stands today, the Mayan zero appears to be anterior by several centuries to its Hindu counterpart.

Answer 3

Here is a link to a paper claiming that Aristotle was the first western philosopher to come up with the concept of zero, but then rejected it due to the Hellenistic thinking of the time.
If you want to read a book about it, try "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea"

Answer 4

In India, mathematics has its roots in Vedic literature which is nearly 4000 years old. Between 1000 B.C. and 1000 A.D. various treatises on mathematics were authored by Indian mathematicians in which were set forth for the first time, the concept of zero, the techniques of algebra and algorithm, square root and cube root.

A method of graduated calculation was documented in the Pancha-Siddhantika (Five Principles) in the 5th Century. But the technique is said to be dating from Vedic times circa 2000 B.C.

The rudiments of Geometry called Rekha-Ganita in ancient India - were formulated and applied in the drafting of Mandalas for architectural purposes.

They were also displayed in the geometric patterns used in many temple motifs.

Answer 5

Zero was developed by 6th century by an Indian mathematician named Brahmagupta. The rules governing the use of zero appeared for the first time in Brahmagupta's book Brahmasputha Siddhanta, written in 628. Here Brahmagupta considers not only zero, but negative numbers, and the algebraic rules for the elementary operations of arithmetic with such numbers.

you could read a little more about it at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/0_%28number%29

Answer 6

Actually, Greek and Roman philosophers were not the first to comprehend the concept of zero. It was actually the Mayans who first experimented with this, as well as the concept of negative numbers.

Answer 7

I beleive it was originally a Hindu concept. I have also read that it was Aristotelian. I wasnt able to find any reliable scources to support that, only dot coms and wikipedia, which is a bunch of crap. It sounds very interesting. I might look into it more.

Answer 8

Aryabhata.

The number zero, as we know it, is Inidan in origin, and arrived to Europe via the Arabs.

Aryabhata stated that "Sthanam sthanam dasa gunam" or place to place in ten times in value, which is presumed the origin of the modern decimal based place value notation.

Answer 9

Aristotle

Answer 10

The Pythagoreans (a group that followed Pythagoras). They had all sort of little quirks (were vegans but didn't eat beans, etc.) Check it out on Wikipedia.