Paul Hoffman: The Man Who Loved Only Numbers—A Biography of Erdős

3,463 characters2007.07.08

Paul Hoffman: Digital Abiding Passion: The Life of Erdős, translated by Mi Xiujun, Zhang Xiaoyan, and Miu Weidong, Shanghai Science and Technology Education Press, August 2000, 21 yuan

This was the first book I read during my trip to Shanxi. It was something Senior Brother Botian had mentioned before, and it really is very good.

It had been a long time since I last read a scientist’s biography. In fact, biographies of scientists are a superb form of popular science: through literary means, they can interestingly combine first-order popularization with second-order popularization. That is to say, in a scientist’s biography, one can not only occasionally insert explanations of scientific knowledge, but more importantly, by introducing the scientist’s actual thought, life, and work, the biography can consciously or unconsciously convey to readers the scientific spirit and the beauty of science; at the same time, it also spreads reflections on all aspects of history of science, science and society, research ethics, science and religion, science and art, and so on. Simply put, a scientist’s biography takes one or several scientists as its point of entry and offers a comprehensive yet accessible portrayal of “science” from various perspectives.

Among scientists, mathematicians are undoubtedly the most distinctive group; their lives are unlike anyone else’s. Although the very top physicists are often also unconventional, they still cannot compare with mathematicians in the vividness of their personalities.

It is said that when Hilbert learned that one of his students had become a poet, he remarked: “As a mathematician, his imagination is indeed not rich enough.” In a certain sense, what Hilbert said was not at all too harsh—solitude, passion, inspiration, perseverance, faith, obsession, innocence, ideals, ease, poverty, madness, imagination, and creativity… mathematicians possess almost every temperament of poets. We might say that mathematicians are often like poets, but it is perhaps even more true to say that poets are like mathematicians.

I am also willing to admit this: those who cannot become mathematicians may choose to become poets, but those who cannot become poets can no longer choose to become mathematicians. As for myself, my imagination is not enough even to make me a poet, so I can only fall back and pursue philosophy.

Outsiders often find it hard to appreciate why what seems to be tedious and profound mathematical activity is similar to art. Indeed, if one does not experience it personally, it is very difficult to understand the wonder of mathematics. However, outsiders can gain an indirect understanding through biographies of mathematicians—look at mathematicians’ real lives, look at their thought and temperament, look at their creative process, and you will certainly think of poets and artists.

On the one hand, Erdős possessed all the typical characteristics of a mathematician; on the other hand, he was also very different—unlike the vast majority of great mathematicians, his creative life was extraordinarily long, and even in the last few years of his life his output remained so abundant that it could be compared with the lifetime work of many mathematicians. Most of his papers were produced in collaboration with others, though of course he was always the central figure. He relied on caffeine and even stimulants to excite his thinking… Although the name Erdős may not be as thunderous to us outsiders as Hilbert, von Neumann, Hardy, Ramanujan, Nash, and the like, his abundant achievements and distinctive personality are in no way inferior to those of any contemporary mathematician.

2007-07-08