Subject: Re: [HM] Siegel on abstraction, cites?
From: Antreas P. Hatzipolakis (xpolakis@otenet.gr)
Date: Thu Feb 10 2000 - 17:13:54 EST
Siegel wrote to Mordell on 3 March 1964:
Thank you for the copy of your review of Lang's book. When I
first saw this book, about a year ago, I was disgusted with the
way in which my own contributions to the subject had been
disfigured and made unintelligible. My feeling is very well
expressed when you mention Rip van Winkle!
The whole style of the author contradicts the sense for
simplicity and honesty which we admire in the works of the
masters in number theory--Lagrange, Gauss, or on a smaller
scale, Hardy, Landau. Just now Lang has published another book
on algebraic numbers which, in my opinion, is still worse than
the former one. I see a pig broken into a beautiful garden and
rooting up all flowers and trees.
Unfortunately there are many "fellow-travelers" who have
already disgraced a large part of algebra and function theory;
however, until now, number theory had not been touched. These
people remind me of the impudent behaviour of the national
socialists who sang: "Wir werden weiter marschieren, bis
alles in Scherben zerfaellt!"
I am afraid that mathematics will perish before the end of
this century if the present trend for senseless
abstraction--as I call it: theory of the empty set--cannot be
blocked up. Let us hope that your review may be helpful...
http://www.ams.org/notices/199503/lang.html
Antreas
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