Mathematics as Desire: The Life of André Weil

• In Event: 46.085 - Roundtable Session 15
  In Roundtable Session: 46.085-21 - Biographical and Documentary Research in Education

Abstract

Biographies and autobiographies of mathematicians are valuable cultural artifacts that have not been mined for the knowledge they contain about the discipline of mathematics. How can these be ‘read’ so as to shed light on what impels and sustains engagement with mathematics and the attendant demands, costs, and rewards? In this paper, using the Lacanian notion of desire, I analyze the autobiography of the French mathematician, André Weil (1906-1998) to demonstrate the forces that shape and influence engagement in the mathematical endeavour.

Author

• Veda Roodal Persad, Langara College