1978/11/30 by J. C. Burkill · 1 citation
Mathematics · Social Sciences · #History and Theory of Mathematics #Mathematics and Applications #Multidisciplinary Warburg-centric Studies #Prestige #Memoir #Subject (documents) #Natural philosophy #Rank (graph theory) #Classics #Mathematics #Philosophy of mathematics #History #Art history #Philosophy #Mathematics education #Epistemology #Computer science #Library science #Combinatorics
paper · doi:10.1098/rsbm.1978.0010
openalex publication_date 1978/11/30 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
Abstract In 1900 pure mathematics in this country was at a low ebb. Since the days of Newton mathematics had come to be regarded as ancillary to natural philosophy. In the nineteenth century this attitude had been confirmed by the prestige of Stokes, Clerk Maxwell, Kelvin and others. On the continent the nineteenth century was as fruitful in pure mathematics as England was barren. The central property of functions of a complex variable was found by Cauchy, and further light was shed on the theory by Riemann and Weierstrass. France, Germany and Italy had many pure mathematicians of the first rank. The leading British scholars, notably Cayley, had been solitary figures and had not led young men into research. After 1900, the principal architect of an English school of mathematical analysis was G. H. Hardy (1877-1947). In strengthening the foundations and building on them he found a partner in the subject of this memoir, J. E. Littlewood (1885-1977). The inspiration of their personalities, their research and their teaching established by 1930 a school of analysis second to none in the world.