Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Midcentury Mathematics and Aesthetic Autonomy

Sat, September 2, 2:00 to 3:30pm, Sheraton Boston, Floor: 3, Beacon F

Abstract

In “Mathematics in the History of Thought” (1925), Whitehead claims that “Mathematics is thought moving in the sphere of complete abstraction from any particular instance of what it is talking about.” Whitehead’s assertion reflected the ongoing modernist transformation in mathematics. However, by midcentury many mathematicians began to argue that far from being abstract thought, mathematics was a creative art. “Creative work in this field,” explained mathematician Adrian Albert in 1960, “has the same kind of a reward for the creator as does the composition of a symphony, the writing of a fine novel, or the making of a great work of art.” Mathematics fulfilled a utilitarian objective, to be sure, but just as important, if not more so, was its realization as a humanistic ideal.

In making their claim to the arts, mathematicians adhered to the same theory of aesthetic autonomy advanced by humanistic critics of the time. Thus, mathematicians joined a host of modernist literary critics, public intellectuals, and art critics who argued that the dominant scientific discourse was in no way comprehensive enough to account for the fullness of human experience. Namely, the artistic conception of mathematics, according to which creativity, imagination, and freedom were crucial to successful work in the field, was fundamental to their humanistic vision. In this talk, I argue that it was mathematicians’ rejection of a binary division between abstraction and concreteness, idealization and utility that enabled them to claim their place as positioned simultaneously within the sciences and the arts.

Author