Indiscrete Thoughts (eBook)

Gian-Carlo Rota (Autor)

Fabrizio Palombi (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2009 | 1. Auflage
XXIII, 299 Seiten
Birkhauser Boston (Verlag)
978-0-8176-4781-0 (ISBN)

Infos

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.

Inhalt

Contents 9
Part I Persons and Places 25
I Fine Hall in its Golden Age 26
II Light Shadows 44
III Combinatorics, Representation Theory and Invariant Theory 62
IV The Barrier of Meaning 78
V Stan Ulam 83
VI The Lost Café 86
Part II Philosophy - A Minority View 110
VII The pernicious Influence of Mathematics Upon Philosophy 111
VIII Philosphy and Computer Science 126
IX The Phenomenology of Mathematical Truth 130
X The Phenomenology of Mathematical Beauty 143
XI The Phenomenology of Mathematical Proof 156
XII Syntax, Semantics, and the Problem of the Identity of Mathematical Items 173
XIII The Barber of Seville, or the Useless Precaution 180
XIV Kant and Husserl 184
XV Fundierung as a Logical Concept 194
XVI The Primacy of Identity 204
XVII Three Senses of "A is B" in Heidegger 210
Part III Indiscrete Thoughts 214
XVIII Ten Lessons I wish I Had Been Taught 215
XIX Ten Lessons for the Survival of a Mathematics Department 224
XX A Mathematician's Gossip 229
XXI Book Reviews 255
Acknowledgments 278
End Notes 279
Epilogue 285
Index 292

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 3.11.2009
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Informatik
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Allgemeines / Lexika
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Geschichte der Mathematik
• Themenwelt: Mathematik / Informatik ► Mathematik ► Statistik
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Identity • Invariant • Mathematicians • Mathematics • Princeton • Proof • Yale
• ISBN-10: 0-8176-4781-3 / 0817647813
• ISBN-13: 978-0-8176-4781-0 / 9780817647810