The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field [Paperback]

Jacques Hadamard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1954

Thoughtful and articulate study of the origin of ideas. Role of the unconscious in invention; the medium of ideas — do they come to mind in words? in pictures? in mathematical terms? Much more. "It is essential for the mathematician, and the layman will find it good reading." — Library Journal.

Product Details

• Paperback: 145 pages
• Publisher: Dover Publications (June 1, 1954)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0486201074
• ISBN-13: 978-0486201078
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #942,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A study of the mental workings of some great mathematicians, January 16, 2001

By 

Mike Christie (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field (Paperback)

This is a short (136 page) study of how creative thought works. Hadamard, a world-class mathematician best known for his proof of the prime number theorem in 1896, wrote this in the 40's, basing it on correspondence with many of the great living mathematicians of his time. The actual questions he posed are preserved in an appendix.

Most of his respondents were mathematicians (and he limited his correspondence to the best minds in the field), but he did get information from several other fields, and cites data about physicists (a letter from Einstein forms another appendix), chemists, physiologists, metaphysicians, and so on. What he is trying to examine is a slippery subject, perhaps best explained by a quote. Here is a discussion of Sidgwick, an economist: "His reasonings on economic questions were almost always accompanied by images, and the images were often curiously arbitrary and sometimes almost undecipherably symbolic. For example, it took him a long time to discover that an odd symbolic image which accompanied the word 'value' was a faint, partial image of a man putting something on a scale."

Hadamard gives his own mental images that accompany his following through the steps of Euclid's famous proof of the infinitude of primes. I won't reproduce that here for space reasons, but the contrast with Sidgwick's--and with other reports of mental activity--is fascinating. Many other examples are given, from Mozart to Polya to Galton to Poincare. Hadamard makes it clear that language and thought are not the same thing, contrary to a commonly expressed view among linguists. He cites Max Muller's comments equating thought and language, and acknowledges that for Muller it may be so, but convincingly demonstrates, by quoting numerous other mathematicians, that it is not true for everyone. The further conclusion, that the process of creative thought, while following similar patterns in similar discipline, can vary dramatically, is as far as Hadamard can go with the data he has.

One other note: this book was retitled "The Mathematician's Mind" and republished in the Princeton Science Library series; it's not immediately clear from the Amazon page that this is so. The Dover edition is substantially cheaper.

A fascinating and informative book.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Psychology of Math, April 2, 2001

By 

Bukkene Bruse (Iowa) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field (Paperback)

The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field is a study on how research mathematicians go about the business of advancing their field. Jacques Hadamard, a prominent mathematician, wrote this psychology text over 50 years ago, after having done his best work 50 years prior. Although in some ways dated, both in content and in writing style, the book provides an interesting examination of the role of the conscious and subconscious in solving a problem, particularly the process of incubation and (seemingly) sudden inspiration. He brings up the roles intuition and logic play in the way various mathematicians go about their business. Hadamard also examines the influence of aesthetics in not just choosing a problem, but in solving it. He studies the choice of research direction, with the interesting comment that Hadamard himself avoided areas of research where there was already a great deal of activity.

The book is short enough that if the subject interests you, it is worth your time.

The text is also published under the title "The Mathematician's Mind."

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First rate advice for science and math students, January 25, 2000

By 

Professor Joseph L. McCauley "Joseph L. McCauley" (Austria+Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field (Paperback)

Not only is this book fascinating, it's the only one of it's kind. The book has also proved very useful to me in life. As a graduate student I used Poincaré's implicit `advice' (described in the book) in the following way. In electrodynamics we had a long problem sheet to hand in every two weeks. I started by writing down answers to all problems that I knew. Then, I thought about the next-easiest problem each day walking twice to and from the University (about 1 1/2 hours altogether). When the answer came I wrote it down and iterated the process. Before the end of two weeks most of the problems (from Jackson) had been solved. Poincari's advice is very good about giving the unconscious a chance to work. Phooey and double phooey on the silly, uncreative skinner-box types and other behaviorists who don't recognize the unconscious as the source of creativity!