mathematics, death (historical)
what is it with famous, amazing mathematicians and dying way too young
think where the field of mathematics could be right now if Srinivasa Ramanujan had lived to be even just 60 (he died at 32)
or if Évariste Galois hadn't died in a duel at the age of 19
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mathematics, death (historical)
@Felthry But on the other hand, there's some selection bias here. Michael Atiyah died at age 89. Alexander Grothendieck lived to be 86 years old even if he spent the last thirty years of his life hiding in the French wilderness. (I exaggerate. Slightly. Guy attracted *legends*.) Andrei Kolmogorov died age 84, living from the time of the Tsars into Glastnost. And of course Pythagoras transcended matter itself to become a god. (Probably a joke.)
re: mathematics, death (historical)
@Austin_Dern Pythagoras very well may have never existed at all, actually
the pythagorean mathematical cult (because of *course* the ancient greeks had math cults) attributed every result any of their number came up with to Pythagoras, and it's entirely possible no one by that name actually existed
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re: mathematics, death (historical)
@IceWolf @Austin_Dern there's doubt as to the existence of Socrates too!
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re: mathematics, death (historical)
@Felthry @IceWolf While true, the thing is back then there's very little historical 'evidence' for *anybody*. It's hard to exaggerate how dismal the document record is from before, like, 1964.
Eg, my understanding is we have *one* manuscript referring to Hannibal known to be written during his life. And Hannibal spent twenty years invading the Roman Empire and traumatizing the aristocracy and army. *That's* how hard it is to prove anyone back then existed.
re: mathematics, death (historical)
@Austin_Dern @IceWolf at least we have actual texts and stuff attributed to Aristotle and stuff though--all we have of Socrates is secondhand accounts at best and several cases of him being used as one of the characters in a dialogue (which i would see as suggesting that maybe he didn't exist and was more like a stock character for greek dialogues?)
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re: mathematics, death (historical)
@Felthry @IceWolf I think it's more accurate to say what we know of Socrates *saying* is from secondhand sources. But that includes Xenophon writing histories. Historians wrote of him in generations that would have seen him. A bunch of philosophers claimed to be students of his. He's recorded as playing parts in the Trial of the Generals.
You can reconcile all this with a 'they made him up' hypothesis but sometimes it's easier to suppose a guy existed.
re: mathematics, death (historical)
@Felthry @Austin_Dern *blinks*
*/blinks/*