Richard Courant

Quotes

• “For scholars and laymen alike it is not philosophy but active experience in mathematics itself that can alone answer the question: What is mathematics?”
• “It becomes the urgent duty of mathematicians, therefore, to meditate about the essence of mathematics, its motivations and goals and the ideas that must bind divergent interests together.”
• “Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality. Though different traditions may emphasize different aspects, it is only the interplay of these antithetic forces and the struggle for their synthesis that constitute the life, usefulness, and supreme value of mathematical science.”
• “Empirical evidence can never establish mathematical existence--nor can the mathematician's demand for existence be dismissed by the physicist as useless rigor. Only a mathematical existence proof can ensure that the mathematical description of a physical phenomenon is meaningful.”

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Key dates

Born

8 January 1888

Died

27 January 1972

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Wikidata facts

Instance of

human

Given name

Richard

Gender

male

Citizenship

United States

Place of birth

Lubliniec

Place of death

New Rochelle

Child

Ernest Courant

Occupation

physicist

Educated at

University of Wrocław

Employer

University of Cambridge

Political party

Social Democratic Party of Germany

Languages spoken

German

Notable work

What Is Mathematics?

Doctoral advisor

David Hilbert

Doctoral student

Mary Taylor Slow

Field of work

partial differential equation

Conflict

World War I

Image

Richard Courant.jpg

Number of children

+4

Work location

New York City

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