Quelques Aspects Pensée Mathematicien Introduction by Lévy Paul (1 results)

Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. 2 leaves, 221, [1] pp. Original wrappers. Upper corners of pages slightly bumped in second half of book. Very Good. First Edition. SIGNED BY PAUL LÉVY TO BENOIT MANDELBROT: "A Benoit Mandelbrot/ Bien cordialment/ P. Lévy." Mandelbrot was a student of Paul Lévy, about whom Mandelbrot writes at length in his autobiography The Fractalist. Lévy "documented his life, thoughts, and opinions at length in a book well worth reading [the book offered here] because of his lack of any attempt to appear better or worse than he was. The best passages are splendid. In particular he describes in touching terms both his fear of being a mere survivor of the last century, and his feeling of being a mathematician unlike all the others. This feeling was widely shared. I recall John von Neumann saying in 1954, 'I think I understand how every other mathematician operates, but Lévy is like a visitor from a strange plant. His own private methods of arriving at the truth leave me ill at ease'.". Signed by Author(s).