The Mathematician's Brain : A Personal Tour Through the Essentials of Mathematics and Some of the Great Minds Behind Them / David Ruelle.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ruelle, David, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mathematicians--Psychology.

Mathematicians.

Mathematics--Philosophy.

Mathematics.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource

Place of Publication:

Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The Mathematician's Brain poses a provocative question about the world's most brilliant yet eccentric mathematical minds: were they brilliant because of their eccentricities or in spite of them? In this thought-provoking and entertaining book, David Ruelle, the well-known mathematical physicist who helped create chaos theory, gives us a rare insider's account of the celebrated mathematicians he has known-their quirks, oddities, personal tragedies, bad behavior, descents into madness, tragic ends, and the sublime, inexpressible beauty of their most breathtaking mathematical discoveries. Consider the case of British mathematician Alan Turing. Credited with cracking the German Enigma code during World War II and conceiving of the modern computer, he was convicted of "gross indecency" for a homosexual affair and died in 1954 after eating a cyanide-laced apple--his death was ruled a suicide, though rumors of assassination still linger. Ruelle holds nothing back in his revealing and deeply personal reflections on Turing and other fellow mathematicians, including Alexander Grothendieck, Rene Thom, Bernhard Riemann, and Felix Klein. But this book is more than a mathematical tell-all. Each chapter examines an important mathematical idea and the visionary minds behind it. Ruelle meaningfully explores the philosophical issues raised by each, offering insights into the truly unique and creative ways mathematicians think and showing how the mathematical setting is most favorable for asking philosophical questions about meaning, beauty, and the nature of reality. The Mathematician's Brain takes you inside the world--and heads--of mathematicians. It's a journey you won't soon forget.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

1. Scientific Thinking

2. What Is Mathematics?

3. The Erlangen Program

4. Mathematics and Ideologies

5. The Unity of Mathematics

6. A Glimpse into Algebraic Geometry and Arithmetic

7. A Trip to Nancy with Alexander Grothendieck

8. Structures

9. The Computer and the Brain

10. Mathematical Texts

11. Honors

12. Infinity: The Smoke Screen of the Gods

13. Foundations

14. Structures and Concept Creation

15. Turing's Apple

16. Mathematical Invention: Psychology and Aesthetics

17. The Circle Theorem and an Infinite- Dimensional Labyrinth

18. Mistake!

19. The Smile of Mona Lisa

20. Tinkering and the Construction of Mathematical Theories

21. The Strategy of Mathematical Invention

22. Mathematical Physics and Emergent Behavior

23. The Beauty of Mathematics

Notes

Index

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 23. Mai 2019)

ISBN:

9780691190303

0691190305

OCLC:

1076415172