INDISCRETE THOUGHTS ROTA PDF

I am a huge fan of Gian-Carlo Rota, who has been said to be the founding father of modern algebraic combinatorics. (He is also my. Indiscrete Thoughts gives a glimpse into a world that has seldom been described that of Gian-Carlo Rota has written the sort of book that few. Indiscrete thoughts. Front Cover. Gian-Carlo Rota. Birkhäuser, – Mathematics – pages Bibliographic information. QR code for Indiscrete thoughts.

Another possibility is that the distinction between “logical” and “actual” is that between verification and discovery. Alexa Actionable Analytics for the Web. Pick up the book! I recall Rota somewhere saying philosophy of mathematics often functions as a means of avoiding mathematics. Readers are bound indsicrete find his observations amusing if not insightful. Rota is not afraid of controversy.

Indiscrete Thoughts

Another topic to consider is whether beauty is objective or subjective. Dispatched from the Indiscretr in 3 business days When will my order arrive? 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. Selected pages Title Page.

Indiscrete thoughts – Gian-Carlo Rota – Google Books

My library Help Advanced Book Search. 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 bombSolomon Lefschetz Chairman in the s of the Princeton mathematics departmentWilliam Feller one of the founders of modern probability theoryJack Schwartz one of the founders of computer scienceand many others.

He brings up a lot of interesting points and questions, including: He spoke softly in complete paragraphs which seemed to have been read out of a book, evenly and slowly enunciated, as by a talking machine. The sense in which this proof fails to be inevitable, I say, is this: He must be a genius! Simplicial Homotopy Theory Paul G. Rota seems to be trying to show that a great mathematician needn’t be a good person. The musings on Mathematics were very interesting.

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 bombSolomon Lefschetz Chairman in the 50s of the Princeton mathematics departmentWilliam Feller one of the founders of modern probability theoryJack Schwartz one of the founders of computer scienceand many others.

Rota paints his subjects with a mix of colors: What will appeal immediately to anyone with an interest in research mathematics are the stories he tells about the practice of modern mathematics.

Does anyone out there who knew him personally have comments on this? To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Indiscrete Thoughtsplease sign up.

Gota era covered by this book, towas surely one of the golden ages of science and of the American university. The smiling visage at right undermines indiscrege of the dark aspects in Rota’s tale. The purpose of a phenomenology is to stimulate a synthesis. If you are anything like me, you will not be able to put it down! What will appeal immediately to anyone with an interest in research mathematics are the stories he tells about the practice of modern mathematics.

Explore the Home Gift Guide. Rota himself suggests this characterisation of beauty: He staunchly defends the axiomatic method while fearlessly critiquing it. Joseph Cooper rated it really liked it Dec 27, Get thoubhts, free shipping with Amazon Prime. He lays out bigotry, psychosis, and all the flaws of mortal men. It can become convinced of the results but it is not happy since all the work was being done outside of it.

The mind can neither predict the course nor grasp the whole; it is forced to cope with extra-cognitive contingencies. The Best Books of He leaves us with not a few bits of wisdom in hopes we might become better Mathematicians and perhaps better people.

In the foreword to the book, Reuben Hersh quotes Peter Lax with an apology for inaccuracy as saying “A lecture by Rota is like a double martini! But this does not seem very plausible. It’s brash and, at times, contradictory, but it’s intensely thought-provoking.

What is mathematical beauty, and why does it seem to depend on context and historical era?

Indiscrete Thoughts – Gian-Carlo Rota – Google Books

How can we make rigorous some of the notions that mathematicians use all the time, but can never formally write about? Both the truth of a theorem and its beauty are equally indiscrette qualities, equally observable characteristics of a piece of mathematics which are equally shared and agreed upon by the community of mathematicians. These instances of mathematical beauty are often independent of each other.

My theory predicts that aesthetic judgements should be universal among everyone to the presumably very considerable extent that human cognitive endowments are so, except insofar as judgement is precluded by lack of study and training. If American parents were to ever read the full literature on TBIs, high school football would be gone the next indiscretee.

Review From the reviews: I quote one review in its entirety a review of Passmore’s Recent Philosophers: Customers who viewed this item also viewed. Some readers may even consider these essays indiscreet.

Rota’s Indiscrete Thoughts

So first I present my synthesis and then I test it against Rota’s phenomenology. Want to Read saving…. The book has three main parts.