University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Kraft took a master’s degree in Copenhagen in 1742.
1746 - 1765
Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, Copenhagen, Denmark
In 1746 Kraft was admitted as a fellow of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters.
Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters, Copenhagen, Denmark
In 1746 Kraft was admitted as a fellow of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters.
University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Kraft took a master’s degree in Copenhagen in 1742.
https://www.amazon.com/Logik-Eller-Den-Videnskab-Taenke/dp/1173908358/?tag=2022091-20
1751
educator mathematician philosopher
Jens Andersen Kraft was born on October 2, 1720, in Fredrikstad, Norway. His mother, Severine Ehrensfryd Scolt, died when he was only two, and his father, Anders Kraft, a senior lieutenant in the Norwegian army, died when he was five years old.
Kraft was privately educated in Denmark at the manor of his uncle, Major Jens Kraft, and took a master’s degree in Copenhagen in 1742. A traveling grant enabled him to study philosophy with Christian Wolff in Germany, and mathematics and physics in France.
In 1747 Kraft became the first professor of mathematics and philosophy in the reestablished academy for the nobility at Soro, where he remained until his death.
Kraft’s best-known work is a textbook on theoretical and technical mechanics (1763-1764). The book, written in an easy and fluent style, contains a series of lectures based on Newtonian principles. Each lecture is provided with a supplement giving a more advanced mathematical exposition of the subject matter.
Kraft’s broad cultural interests were reflected in a book on the life and manners of primitive peoples which is regarded as a pioneer work in social anthropology. It was written in the belief that a study of savage cultures would reveal the general origin of human institutions and beliefs.
His first paper, presented to the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters in 1746, was a clear exposition of the systems of Descartes and Newton. In opposition to his admired teacher, Christian Wolff, Kraft sided with Newton by showing that the Cartesian vortex theory was incompatible with accepted mechanical principles. Kraft did write several textbooks, nevertheless, on logic, ontology, cosmology, and psychology, inspired primarily by Wolffian philosophy.
Mathematics was one of Kraft’s major areas of interest. Two early theses (written in 1741 and 1742) present no really new contributions to mathematics, but they show Kraft to have been a skilled and well-read mathematician. For example, the theses contain discussions of equations which are solved by means of Descartes's method of cuts between parabolas and circles. In 1748-1750 Kraft published two mathematical treatises.
In two small treatises from 1751-1754 Kraft argued that the concepts of infinitely large and infinitely small do not exist in an absolute sense in mathematics and physics and that they must be conceived as relative quantities.
Kraft often expressed his admiration for Wolff, Daniel Bernouilli, Clairaut, and d’Alembert, whose works changed his general scientific outlook.
In 1746 Kraft was admitted as a fellow of the Royal Danish Academy of Science and Letters.
Kraft was an eminent teacher and popular lecturer.
Kraft was married twice, to Bodil Cathrine Evertsen, who died in 1758, and to Sophie Magdalene Langhorn, who survived him.
