That's funny and sad. I'll have to ask Robin about that the next time I see him. I've been going to the Friday lunchtime theoretical CS seminars at the Princeton Univ. for the last 20 years. For the life of me I can't see why what they're doing isn't mathematics. It's just a weird historical accident. However, I do notice a difference in the knowledge of theoretical CS people -- they usually (there are a few exceptions) have much less analysis, virtually no topology, and much less Abstract Algebra, then mathematicians. Victor On Sat, Jul 4, 2015 at 10:47 AM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> wrote:
Welcome (back?), Scott.
It's hard to disentangle the questions "What is mathematics?", "What do mathematicians do?", and "What is a mathematician?" One of my LEAST favorite answers to the last of these questions is Lord Kelvin's: "A mathematician is one to whom *that* [the formula for the integral of exp(-x^2) as x goes from minus infinity to infinity] is as obvious as that twice two makes four is to you." I dislike that for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which is that it implies that I am not a mathematician --- I can't even remember whether it's pi or 2 pi inside the square root.
Relating to a different point from Scott's email, here's a fun story that's probably almost completely true (I may have minor details wrong): Probabilists Robin Pemantle and Jeff Steif were at an airport together when Robin said he could often spot mathematicians by their appearance, and when pressed to demonstrate this knack, opined that a particular fellow in the waiting area looked like a mathematician. They asked him, but he said he wasn't a mathematician. Later, on the flight, Robin saw the same person reading a yellow Springer-Verlag text. "Are you -sure- you're not a mathematician?" asked Robin. "I'm not a mathematician," the stranger replied, "I'm a theoretical computer scientist!"
Jim Propp
On Friday, July 3, 2015, SCOTT KIM <scottekim1@gmail.com> wrote:
Love this question and am not happy yet with any answers I've heard. I want a definition that does not just say what math is, but also distinguishes it from its near neighbors (e.g. Computer science and logic) and distinguishes among ways of practicing math, e.g. Pure vs. applied vs. recreational. Thoughts?
Sent from my iPhone
On Jun 11, 2015, at 3:23 PM, James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com <javascript:;>> wrote:
A couple of weeks ago, in a gathering of mathematicians throwing out candidate definitions of mathematics, I half-seriously ventured the opinion that mathematics is the subset of philosophy consisting of those philosophical questions that actually have answers, along with the answers to those questions.
But I don't think this is original. Whom am I quoting (or paraphrasing) here?
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