From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.science.mathematics.categories/5341 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Robert Seely Newsgroups: gmane.science.mathematics.categories Subject: re: A well kept secret Date: Wed, 9 Dec 2009 12:02:35 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: References: Reply-To: Robert Seely NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: ger.gmane.org 1260453516 28611 80.91.229.12 (10 Dec 2009 13:58:36 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@ger.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:58:36 +0000 (UTC) To: Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh , categories@mta.ca Original-X-From: categories@mta.ca Thu Dec 10 14:58:29 2009 Return-path: Envelope-to: gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from mailserv.mta.ca ([138.73.1.1]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1NIjV4-00085z-5j for gsmc-categories@m.gmane.org; Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:56:10 +0100 Original-Received: from Majordom by mailserv.mta.ca with local (Exim 4.61) (envelope-from ) id 1NIiyt-0006DP-JS for categories-list@mta.ca; Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:22:55 -0400 In-Reply-To: <7b998a320912090812x60551840r641fe9feb75efaee@mail.gmail.com> Original-Sender: categories@mta.ca Precedence: bulk Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.science.mathematics.categories:5341 Archived-At: On Wed, 9 Dec 2009, Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh wrote: > I have read that Dirac had no empathy, not even for his family. I thin= k the > story goes the same for many other famous mathematicians/scientists. W= hy is > it being so promoted that being a good mathematician and a good human b= eing > is impossible? Is it really true? Certainly Farmelo's book gives that impression - Dirac wasn't exactly warm and cuddly. But I'd say that from my experience with mathematicians, there's no reason to assert that one cannot be both a good mathematician and a good human being - but maybe that's just because most mathematicians I know are category theorists ... ... (there are exceptions, of course) ... -=3D rags =3D- > -Mehrnoosh > > On Tue, Dec 8, 2009 at 5:23 AM, Robert Seely wrot= e: > >> Well, we might not say that, but Voevodsky did. Link on the triples >> page: http://www.math.mcgill.ca/triples/ (or directly >> http://claymath.msri.org/voevodsky2002.mov) where he says "Categories: >> one of the most important ideas of 20th century mathematics". >> >> BTW - the Farmelo book, The Strangest Man, is one I recommend to my >> students - it's well worth looking at. But one thing that struck me >> was how *little* Farmelo plays the "strange man" theme - Dirac was >> indeed strange, but that's not what makes him worth reading about, nor >> was it what made him a great theoretician. Farmelo doesn't (IMO) make >> the same mistake so many documentary producers do ... >> >> -=3D rags =3D- >> [For admin and other information see: http://www.mta.ca/~cat-dist/ ]