“The working mathematician is a Platonist on weekdays, a formalist on weekends.”
— Reuben Hersh
Mathematician and popular prolific writer Reuben Hersh died on Jan. 3, apparently in Santa Fe, NM., but I haven’t seen any details about his demise or major tributes as yet on the Web (no doubt forthcoming). Hersh started off with a B.A. in English literature in 1947, and only later returned to school to attain his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1962.
Hersh’s writing was almost always interesting and thought-provoking (advocating what he termed a “humanist” view of mathematics) whether one agreed with him or not. He famously feuded with recreational mathematician/writer Martin Gardner as exemplified in a well-known and critical 1997 review Gardner wrote about Hersh’s popular volume, “What Is Mathematics, Really?” Gardner was a vocal and sharp-tongued "Platonist;" Hersh was not. Definitely worth a read if you’ve never seen it (the review):
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1997-oct-12-bk-44915-story.html
Gardner leads off saying he has “such high respect for [Hersh] as a mathematician and such low respect for his philosophy of mathematics.” And it gets harsher from there.
Hersh did eventually reply to Gardner though I couldn’t find a direct, free link to it on the Web (if someone knows of one let us know). This page offers up the first page of Hersh’s response and means for seeing the rest if you so wish:
https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/reply-to-martin-gardner-1IRiQyGw5c
==> ADDENDUM: Thanks to .mau (in comments below) for finding this unformatted link to Hersh’s response:
Many of Hersh's other articles are here:
Martin Gardner, who like Hersh died in his 90's, wanted to believe there was an 'afterlife' following death. Perhaps if there is, he and Reuben are carrying on their fascinating debate somewhere in the great beyond... or, better yet, maybe they've found a final answer.
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ADDENDUM: Here's one tribute to Reuben that came in a few weeks after his death:
https://www.santafe.edu/news-center/news/tribute-reuben-hersh
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ADDENDUM: Here's one tribute to Reuben that came in a few weeks after his death:
https://www.santafe.edu/news-center/news/tribute-reuben-hersh
1 comment:
I found an (unformatted) complete version of Hersh's answer at http://139.6.160.6/litecat/litie/?param[]=litie_200&value[]=Hersh,%20R. , which seems to me a bona fide resource. (There are also rogue fonts, which I won't mention...)
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