Αναρτήθηκε σε 31 Οκτωβρίου, 2006 κατηγορία: Διαλέξεις

Συντάκτης: Amir Alexander

Like great poets, great mathematicians shine brightly only for a moment, and are quickly eclipsed by death, mental illness, or slow decline. So it is in the popular imagination, and so it is in the lives of many mathematical lights of the past two centuries, from Galois and Abel to Gödel and Nash. Strikingly, however, this was not the case for previous generations, when brilliant mathematicians were just as likely to be successful in life as in their chosen field. What changed? Why did mathematical martyrs suddenly appear so ubiquitous? And what did all this mean to mathematical practices in the past two centuries? This paper will discuss all of these questions. The emergence of the mathematical martyr, it will conclude, is inseparable from the emergence of modern mathematics in the 19th century.

Το κείμενο αυτό είναι η περίληψη μίας ομιλίας του Amir Alexander που δώθηκε στο πλαίσιο της εκδήλωσης 1οο Χρόνια Κουρτ Γκέντελ στις 31 Οκτωβρίου 2006.