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Alexander Wittenberg fonds
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Audio materials

Series consists of seven audio reels containing lectures titled 'Education: the unfulfilled promise' which were broadcast on CBC Radio, as well as eight other audio recordings associated with Wittenberg’s research.

Research output, publications and drafts

Series consists of Wittenberg’s research output – books, articles, conference papers, book reviews, in both published and draft forms - from 1951 to posthumously published materials. Materials are written in German, French and English and for the most part pertain to the need and the ways to treat mathematical education as a foundational element within any humanistic education system.

Student notes

Series consists of Wittenberg's hand-written notes and course work from his time as a student at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich).

Academic and administrative files

Series consists of materials pertaining to Wittenberg’s life as an academic. While the Laval University-related materials consists mostly of course work and administrative matters, the York University files reflect a much more active and engaged involvement in University life and in questions of institutional governance and vision.

Correspondence

Series consists of personal and professional correspondence with leading scientists, mathematicians and education specialists from across Europe and North America. As Wittenberg did not maintain copies of his letters, for the most part the series only contains the incoming letters. The series includes correspondence with scholars such as Paul Bernays, Alexander Calandara, Tatiana Ehrenfest Afanasyeva, Ferdinand Gonseth, Ahron Katchalsky (Katzir), Thomas Kuhn, Imre Lakatos, Georges Polya, Michael Polanyi and many other colleagues and acquaintances. There are several files pertaining to Wittenberg’s involvement with councils, associations and other initiatives that aimed to promote mathematical and scientific education across Canada and North America. The series also contains materials of more personal nature pertaining to matters such as trips, children schools, post-Holocaust restitution claims, and involvement in Canadian Jewish community life.

Alexander Wittenberg fonds

  • F0747
  • Fonds
  • [1940?]-1970

Fonds consists of records created and maintained by Alexander Israel Wittenberg, pertaining to his career as a mathematician, university professor and researcher of mathematical education, mathematical philosophy and general educational policies. The fonds includes Wittenberg’s correspondence with leading scientists, mathematicians and education specialists from across Europe and North America, reflecting his involvement with research pertaining to these issues, as well as to various other initiatives, debates and policy discussions. Other series in the fonds contain records relating to the academic courses that Wittenberg developed and taught and his involvement with the governance of York University during his tenure as a faculty member and which attest to his vision regarding the University’s future pedagogical direction; records from his time as a student in Zurich; most of his scholarly output and public engagements since the late 1940s and until his death in 1965; and some sound recordings containing radio broadcasts made by Wittenberg. The fonds also contains several personal records of both Wittenberg and his close family members, as well as photographs and newspaper clippings.

Upon his death, Wittenberg left behind him several unfinished projects. Amongst these are two manuscripts, the first, titled “Education: the unfulfilled promise,” is based on a series of lectures that he broadcasted on CBC radio during March and April 1965. The second manuscript, “Number – a case study in knowledge,” is based on an interdisciplinary mathematical-philosophical course that Wittenberg delivered to first- and second-year students at York University. Also included in the collection are initial notes and drafts relating to two other projects that Wittenberg was planning: a biography of Albert Einstein whom he perceived as a symbol for the ability to successfully combine scientific excellence with strong and unbending moral values, and a university-level textbook on vector algebra.

Wittenberg, Alexander Israël

Varia

File consists of various letters, notes and newspaper clips that were found together in a separate file folder.

Summer 1960

File consists of correspondence and materials relating to a research trip to London England and meetings with various academics.

Schulen Toronto

File consists of correspondence with and brochures from various private schools across Toronto with regards to the Wittenberg family move to Toronto from Quebec and choosing schools from the children.

Raeff

File consists of correspondence with Marc Raeff, historian, Russian history.

Raeff

File consists of correspondence with Marc Raeff, historian, Russian history.

Nursery Clocks

File consists of correspondence regarding an initiative to develop a numberless clock for young children.

Nash

File consists of correspondence with Paul Nash, education professor.

Laval

File consists of correspondence, mostly regarding administrative matters, with various functions within Laval University.

ENS

File consists of various correspondence regarding an initiative to establish a dedicated school for the training of math teachers.

Arbeitsplan

Item is an undated work plan on future projects, including a section on a plan to write about Albert Einstein.

Supplementary manuscripts

File consists of a several documents and notes that were found together in one file folder. Titles: "Einstein"; "Specialization, a service or treason of culture?"; "Concerning the formation of future professors of secondary education"; "mathematics in the gymnasium"; "The genetic principle"; "The task of the gymnasium"; "Democracy and the elite"; "Foreword to the English edition of 'bildung and mathematik'"; "Vorwort zur 2. auflage von 'bildung und mathematik'"; "Introduction to the American edition of 'bildung und mathematik'"; "the unfulfilled promise". The file also contains letters to publishers in Holland and Switzerland.

Introduction

Item is a publication in 'Dialectica', 19, 1/2, 15.3 - 15.6, 1965, authored jointly by Wittenberg and F. Gonseth.

Audio tapes

File consists of six audio tapes, numbered 1-6, kept in a York University envelope.

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