Origin and decline of the scientific discipline Descriptive Geometry

Ana Mary Fonseca Barreto de Almeida; Gert Schubring

doi:10.46551/emd.v9n16a30

Authors

Ana Mary Fonseca Barreto de Almeida Fluminense Federal Institute https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2286-4267
Gert Schubring Federal University of Rio de Janeiro https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4093-1091

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46551/emd.v9n16a30

Keywords:

Descriptive Geometry, ]Stereotomy, Fortifications, Disciplinarization

Abstract

Descriptive Geometry originated with the creation of the École Centrale des Travaux Publics, later renamed École Polytechnique. Two arts — Architecture and Fortification — were taken as teaching subjects, giving rise to this scientific discipline. The study aimed to analyze the process of rise, transformation, and decline of Descriptive Geometry, with a qualitative character, through the methodology of textual and contextual analysis. The École Polytechnique suffered a severe crisis between modernist and empiricist engineers, separating theoretical and practical teaching. Thus, the analyses reveal that the decline of this discipline occurred approximately fifteen years after its creation, with a complexity of social, cultural, epistemological, and corporatist factors and dimensions causing this decline.

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