Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- 1 The effects of a broken home: Bertrand Russell and Cambridge
- 2 I. A. Richards, F. R. Leavis and Cambridge English
- 3 Emily Davies, the Sidgwicks and the education of women in Cambridge
- 4 Radioastronomy in Cambridge
- 5 Three Cambridge prehistorians
- 6 John Maynard Keynes
- 7 Mathematics in Cambridge and beyond
- 8 James Stuart: engineering, philanthropy and radical politics
- 9 The Darwins in Cambridge
- 10 How the Burgess Shale came to Cambridge; and what happened
- 11 Ludwig Wittgenstein
- 12 ‘Brains in their fingertips’: physics at the Cavendish Laboratory 1880–1940
- 13 J. N. Figgis and the history of political thought in Cambridge
- 14 Molecular biology in Cambridge
- 15 James Frazer and Cambridge anthropology
- 16 Michael Oakeshott
7 - Mathematics in Cambridge and beyond
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes on contributors
- Preface
- 1 The effects of a broken home: Bertrand Russell and Cambridge
- 2 I. A. Richards, F. R. Leavis and Cambridge English
- 3 Emily Davies, the Sidgwicks and the education of women in Cambridge
- 4 Radioastronomy in Cambridge
- 5 Three Cambridge prehistorians
- 6 John Maynard Keynes
- 7 Mathematics in Cambridge and beyond
- 8 James Stuart: engineering, philanthropy and radical politics
- 9 The Darwins in Cambridge
- 10 How the Burgess Shale came to Cambridge; and what happened
- 11 Ludwig Wittgenstein
- 12 ‘Brains in their fingertips’: physics at the Cavendish Laboratory 1880–1940
- 13 J. N. Figgis and the history of political thought in Cambridge
- 14 Molecular biology in Cambridge
- 15 James Frazer and Cambridge anthropology
- 16 Michael Oakeshott
Summary
Arthur Cayley's appointment to the Sadleirian Professorship in 1863 may be taken to mark the start of a new, recognisably modern period in the study of mathematics at Cambridge. The appointment is significant not just because Cayley was the first mathematician with a truly international reputation to work at Cambridge since the days of Newton; the Sadleirian Chair was itself a new position, created to replace nine University lectureships in mathematics that had become moribund. In his inaugural lecture Cayley defined his task in these terms: he was to explain and teach the principles of pure mathematics and to apply himself to the advancement of that science.
Cambridge could hardly have found a better person for the job. Cayley, then 42, was a dazzling mathematician: energetic, prolific, eager to promote the subject, congenial to talk to, knowledgeable in nearly all branches of the subject and original in many. He also belonged to the first generation of English mathematicians for over 100 years who were not insular in their outlook. It was only within Cayley's day that British mathematics connected to European mainstream developments, whatever may have been its earlier claims to innovation. Cayley in particular wrote extensive survey articles, describing the state of the art in various branches of the subject. This is an invaluable service for any nation that is cut off from the research tradition. In every respect, Cayley was the man for the job. And yet he did not create a school of mathematics.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Cambridge Minds , pp. 86 - 99Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994