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The Genius Mathematician That Never Lived
The philosophy of modern mathematics (structures) that swept through American and foreign education systems in the middle of the century was led by the great mathematician and artist Nicolas Bourbaki — who never lived.
Nicolas Bourbaki was one of the influential mathematicians of the 20th century that originated the modern concept of mathematical proof, authored many textbooks, and published dozens of academic papers in international journals.
When that great mathematician applied to the American Mathematical Society in the 1950s, the application was rejected for one reason — Nicolas Bourbaki did not exist.
Who was Nicholas Bourbaki?
Nicholas Bourbaki was not a person but a pseudonym chosen for a secretive math group founded by nine great mathematicians in France in the mid-1930s. Henri Cartan, André Weil, Szolem Mandelbrojt, Frenchmen Claude Chevalley, and Jean Dieudonne were some of the active founders who collectively wrote many academic papers under the Bourbaki pseudonym to represent the essence of a “contemporary mathematician.”
The founders were the admirers of the German mathematician David Hilbert and agreed to retire from the group at age 50. Then the group was driven by new recruits.
That real-life mathematical mystery Nicholas Bourbaki was responsible for the emergence of the new math called “Structural Mathematics.”
According to Nicolas Bourbaki,
“Structures are the weapons of the mathematician.” -
No mathematician in today’s world is free of the influence of Nicolas Bourbaki’s seminaire work.
The Emergence of Nicolas Bourbaki
Two decades ago, mathematics was in chaos. Several practiced mathematicians had lost their lives in the First World War, and the domain had become fragmented. Various branches used a different methodology to seek their own goals. There was a lack of a shared mathematical language, which made it challenging to expand their work.
In 1934, a group of French mathematicians was exhausted. While studying at the École normale supérieure, they discovered the textbook for their calculus class and chose to…
