The Apprenticeship of a Mathematician

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• p29 On the examination, I was given a question relating to Kant and Durkheim. I was familiar enough with the textbook in use to write an acceptable essay, but in truth I had never read a sentence written by either of these authors, and I was shocked to receive a grade far superior to what I thought I deserved. When the philosophy examiner inquired as to my plans for the following year, I replied without hesitation: ``I will be studying for the entrance exams for the Ecole Normale.'' ``In philosophy, of course?'' ``Oh no, sir; in mathematics.'' It seemed to me that a subject in which one could do so well while barely knowing what one was talking about was hardly worthy of respect. Youth is unjust. p54 I had the privilege of spending not my days but my nights in his (Mittag-Leffler) b... (查看原文)

  无脊椎 2赞 2013-05-23 00:04:46

• It was also during my final years in high school that my enthusiasm for literature, and above all for Greek poetry, was enhanced by a taste for old editions of the Greek and Latin authors. Some of these were still to be found along the quays of the Seine. Reading these old editions made me feel even closer to the writers of antiquity - not that their contemporaries themselves had read such volumes, but the sixteenth-century editions upon which my predilection soon settled were the work of the great humanists such as Estienne, Aldus, and Bude; and they were not so very far removed from the manuscripts. I knew that the modern editions might boast more reliable and more accurate texts; but that was not important to me.Moreover, I came to see that the more recent editions infallibly suffer fro... (查看原文)

  das Seyn 2赞 2024-12-14 21:01:41

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