The Mind of the Mathematician

Contents

Contents Preface vii Introduction ix PART I } TOUR OF THE LITERATURE Chapter 1. Mathematicians and Their World 3 Chapter 2. Mathematical Ability 24 Chapter 3. The Dynamics of Mathematical Creation 42 PART II } TWENTY MATHEMATICAL PERSONALITIES Chapter 4. Lagrange, Gauss, Cauchy, and Dirichlet 67 Chapter 5. Hamilton, Galois, Byron, and Riemann 88 Chapter 6. Cantor, Kovalevskaya, Poincaré, and Hilbert 105 Chapter 7. Hadamard, Hardy, Noether, and Ramanujan 131 Chapter 8. Fisher, Wiener, Dirac, and Gödel 149 References 163 Index 175 This page intentionally left blank ...