Indiscrete Thoughts

by Rota, Gian-Carlo; Palombi, Fabrizio

• ISBN13: 9780817647803
• ISBN10: 0817647805
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-01
• Publisher: Birkhauser

Summary

Indiscrete Thoughts gives a glimpse into a world that has seldom been described that of science and technology as seen through the eyes of a mathematician. The era covered by this book, 1950 to 1990, was surely one of the golden ages of science as well as the American university.Cherished myths are debunked along the way as Gian-Carlo Rota takes pleasure in portraying, warts and all, some of the great scientific personalities of the period '”Stanislav Ulam (who, together with Edward Teller, signed the patent application for the hydrogen bomb), Solomon Lefschetz (Chairman in the 50s of the Princeton mathematics department), William Feller (one of the founders of modern probability theory), Jack Schwartz (one of the founders of computer science), and many others.Rota is not afraid of controversy. Some readers may even consider these essays indiscreet. After the publication of the essay "The Pernicious Influence of Mathematics upon Philosophy" (reprinted six times in five languages) the author was blacklisted in analytical philosophy circles. Indiscrete Thoughts should become an instant classic and the subject of debate for decades to come."Read Indiscrete Thoughts for its account of the way we were and what we have become; for its sensible advice and its exuberant rhetoric."--The Mathematical Intelligencer"Learned, thought-provoking, politically incorrect, delighting in paradox, and likely to offend'”but everywhere readable and entertaining."--The American Mathematical Monthly"It is about mathematicians, the way they think, and the world in which the live. It is 260 pages of Rota calling it like he sees it... Readers are bound to find his observations amusing if not insightful. Gian-Carlo Rota has written the sort of book that few mathematicians could write. What will appeal immediately to anyone with an interest in research mathematics are the stories he tells about the practice of modern mathematics."--MAA Reviews

Author Biography

Rota is not afraid of controversy. Some readers may even consider these essays indiscreet. After the publication of the essay "The Pernicious Influence of Mathematics upon Philosophy" (reprinted six times in five languages) the author was blacklisted in analytical philosophy circles. Indiscrete Thoughts should become an instant classic and the subject of debate for decades to come.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Foreword	p. xiii
Introduction	p. xix
Persons and Places
Fine Hall in its Golden Age Remembrances of Princeton in the Early Fifties	p. 3
Alonzo Church	p. 4
William Feller	p. 7
Emil Artin	p. 12
Solomon Lefschetz	p. 16
Light Shadows Yale in the Early Fifties	p. 21
Jack Schwartz	p. 21
From Princeton to Yale	p. 22
Josia Willard Gibbs	p. 24
Yale in the Fifties	p. 26
Mathematics at Yale	p. 28
Abstraction in Mathematics	p. 30
Linear Operators: The Past	p. 32
Linear Operators: The Present	p. 34
Linear Operators: The Future	p. 35
Working with Jack Schwartz	p. 36
Combinatorics, Representation Theory and Invariant Theory The Story of a Menage a Trois	p. 39
Cambridge 02138 in the Early Fifties	p. 39
Alfred Young	p. 41
Problem Solvers and Theorizers	p. 45
Hermann Grassmann and Exterior Algebra	p. 46
Definition and Description in Mathematics	p. 48
Bottom Lines	p. 51
The Barrier of Meaning	p. 55
Stan Ulam	p. 60
The Lost Café	p. 63
Philosophy: A Minority View
The Pernicious Influence of Mathematics Upon Philosophy	p. 89
Philosophy and Computer Science	p. 104
The Phenomenology of Mathematical Truth	p. 108
The Phenomenology of Mathematical Beauty	p. 121
The Phenomenology of Mathematical Proof	p. 134
Syntax, Semantics, and the Problem of the Identity of Mathematical Items	p. 151
The Barber of Seville or the Useless Precaution	p. 158
Kant and Husserl	p. 162
Fundierung as a Logical Concept	p. 172
The Primacy of Identity	p. 182
Three Senses of "A is B" in Heidegger	p. 188
Readings and Comments
Ten Lessons I Wish I Had Been Taught	p. 195
Ten Lessons for the Survival of a Mathematics Department	p. 204
A Mathematician's Gossip	p. 209
Book Reviews	p. 235
Paul Halmos: a Life	p. 235
The Leading Line of Schaum's Outlines	p. 237
Professor Neanderthal's World	p. 242
Uses and Misuses of Numbers	p. 245
On Reading Collected Papers	p. 248
Matroids	p. 250
Short Book Reviews	p. 252
End Notes	p. 259
Epilogue	p. 265
Index	p. 273
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