How Beautiful Are Numbers?
Beatrice Institute, one of the sponsoring institutes of Genealogies of Modernity, recently produced this exciting podcast episode. (This series is distinct from the recently released Genealogies of Modernity podcast, but both provide thought-provoking and complementary perspectives on the driving questions of this journal.)
This episode asks: How is mathematics a liberal art? How can being good at math translate into virtue?
Dr. Francis Su, the Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College, is well aware of mathematics’ place in human flourishing. In this episode, he and Grant Martsolf converse over these questions. They also discuss the reverence evoked by math and the transcendence found in it, the effectiveness of mathematical assessments, and popular mathematical literature.
Listen here on Apple, Spotify, or Amazon.
1:46 Math is an art of making meaning from patterns.
2:13 Virtue is “a certain excellence of character that leads to excellence of conduct.” Math builds in its practitioners certain kinds of virtues.
9:03 Math uniquely cultivates a desire for beauty, such as in the beauty of reasoning.
13:47 Beauty and transcendence in math comes from making unexpected connections between things that seem impossible to connect.
22:00 “[We need] people who have some idea of how math actually shapes the way we live, and could shape the way we live,” which can be evoked by reading books about math and the popular imagination.
23:18 Math inspires reverence and awe and helps people believe that “there’s some order, some rationale behind the universe.”
28:40 Looked at multidimensionally, there are not broad differences between the math abilities of men versus women.
32:23 “I like the fact that I do want my students to see math as something that contributes to human flourishing for everybody. It has an aspect of wonder and joy. But when you see something that’s wonderful and joyful, you naturally want to share it with other people, right?”
33:57 Grades can impede excellence in mathematics because it threatens to replace people’s sense of joy and wonder in math with a craving for performance.
35:45 Computers have the potential both to deaden and to inspire creativity.