This open access book is about the shaping of international relations in mathematics over the last two hundred years. It focusses on institutions and organizations that were created to frame the international dimension of mathematical research. Today, striking evidence of globalized mathematics is provided by countless international meetings and the worldwide repository ArXiv. The text follows the sinuous path that was taken to reach this state, from the long nineteenth century, through the two wars, to the present day. International cooperation in mathematics was well established by 1900, centered in Europe. The first International Mathematical Union, IMU, founded in 1920 and disbanded in 1932, reflected above all the trauma of WW I. Since 1950 the current IMU has played an increasing role in defining mathematical excellence, as is shown both in the historical narrative and by analyzing data about the International Congresses of Mathematicians. For each of the three periods discussed, interactions are explored between world politics, the advancement of scientific infrastructures, and the inner evolution of mathematics. Readers will thus take a new look at the place of mathematics in world culture, and how international organizations can make a difference. Aimed at mathematicians, historians of science, scientists, and the scientifically inclined general public, the book will be valuable to anyone interested in the history of science on an international level.
Author(s): Norbert Schappacher
Edition: 1
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Tags: math, maths, mathematics, International Mathematical Union, politics
Preface
Acronyms, Initialisms and Shortcuts
Contents
Part I The Long Nineteenth Century that Made the IMU Possible: 1800–1918
Chapter 1 Nationalism, Internationalism and the Sciences in the Long Nineteenth Century
1.1 Jobs and Journals
1.1.1 The Humboldt Brothers
1.1.2 Adolphe Quetelet and Mathematical Statistics
1.1.3 England
1.1.4 Paris and France
1.1.5 Italy
1.1.6 Gösta Mittag-Leffler
1.1.7 A Woman Mathematician with International Connections
1.2 Nation Branding through Science
1.2.1 Chemical Elements
1.2.2 Nation, Culture, Science
1.2.3 Nation and Mathematics
1.3 Felix Klein, a Sample of Projects he was Involved in
1.3.1 Attempts to Federate Pure and Applied Science
1.3.2 The Unlikely Resurrection of Scientific Academies as (Inter)National Agents of Science
1.3.3 The Encyclopedia of the Mathematical Sciences Including Their Applications
1.4 World Mathematics before World War I
1.4.1 International Congresses
1.4.2 Japan GoesWest
1.4.3 Mathematical Associations
1.4.4 India’s Entry onto the World’s Mathematical Stage
Chapter 2 Unfirm Foundations
2.1 Mathematics Meets Literature
2.1.1 Mathematics and Name Worshipping
2.1.2 Robert Musil
2.2 Hermann Weyl’s Changing Attitudes to the Foundational Crisis
2.2.1 The First Phase: Before the War
2.2.2 The Second Phase: 1917–1918
2.2.3 The Third Phase: After the War
Chapter 3 World War I
3.1 To the Civilized World!
3.2 Intellectual Warfare
3.3 Mathematic(ian)s during World War I
3.3.1 Vito Volterra and Mauro Picone
3.4 International Congresses during the Great War
Part II Mathematical Consolidation in Times of Tempest: 1919–1949
Chapter 4 The First IMU: Triumph and Demise
4.1 The Framers of the Council, the IRC
4.1.1 The First Scientific Unions within the IRC; Preparing for the IMU
4.2 The UAI; the League of Nations; the ICIC
4.3 Strasbourg
4.3.1 Maurice Fréchet in Strasbourg
4.3.2 The IMU Founded in Strasbourg
4.3.3 The 1920 ICM in Strasbourg: “la grande manifestation patriotique et scientifique”
4.4 The Waning Influence of the IMU
4.4.1 John Charles Fields
4.4.2 “The Disagreeable Tempest which Raged at Toronto”
4.4.3 Bologna and the Marginalization of the IMU
Chapter 5 Philanthropic Capital for Mathematics
5.1 The Rockefeller Philanthropies
5.2 The Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Chapter 6 Mathematical Consolidation and Unification in the 1930s
6.1 Emmy Noether’s Legacy
6.1.1 What is ‘Modern’ about ‘Modern Algebra’?
6.1.2 Emmy Noether’s Auffassung and its Influence
6.1.3 Emmy Noether’s International Network
6.2 Encounters, Workshops and Congresses in the 1930s
6.2.1 Specialized Conferences
6.2.2 ICMs of the Thirties
6.3 Books, Journals; Zentralblatt and Mathematical Reviews
6.3.1 Books
6.3.2 Journals and Politics
6.3.3 Review Journals and Politics
6.4 Three Journeys to the West
Chapter 7 Forced Migration and World War II
7.1 Global Redistribution of Scientists in the 1930s and 1940s
7.2 What World War II Meant for Mathematics
7.2.1 Searching for the Hiding Place of the IMU
7.2.2 Mathematics for the War
7.2.3 How World War II Reshaped the World – the Case of Mathematics
Part III Seventy Years of Globalization: 1950–2020
Chapter 8 Seventy Years, Eighteen ICMs, and One IMU
8.1 A New IMU and an ICM in Another World
8.1.1 United Nations, International Tribunals
8.1.2 UNESCO and ICSU
8.1.3 The New IMU
8.1.4 Gathering “a Very Large Part of the Mathematical World”
8.2 IMU Time Intervals
8.2.1 Gearing up to Run Mathematics International: The New IMU 1950–1962
8.2.2 From Moscow to Helsinki: 1966–1978
8.2.3 New Horizons: 1982–1990
8.2.4 Mathematics Without Borders? 1994–2002
8.2.5 Global Reach from a New Homebase: 2006–2018
8.3 A World Wide Web of Institutes
Chapter 9 ICMI, The Resilient Nucleus of the IMU
Chapter 10 Framing Mathematical Excellence
10.1 The Infrastructure of the IMU
10.1.1 The Committee for Electronic Information and Communication (CEIC)
10.1.2 Women in Mathematics
10.1.3 The Commission for Developing Countries (CDC)
10.1.4 The International Commission on the History of Mathematics (ICHM)
10.2 Framing ICMs
10.3 The Database
10.4 The Cupola of the ICMs
10.4.1 Parts of the mathematical world
10.4.2 Institutions of the Cupola
10.5 Framing Domains of Mathematics
10.5.1 Mathematical Subdomains
10.5.2 Fields Medalists
10.5.3 Plenary Speakers
10.5.4 Filtering the Mathematical Production
References
1. ILLUSTRATION SOURCES
2. ARCHIVES
3. PUBLICATIONS
Index
