The Poetry in Mathematics

Sir Isaac Newton

I have heretofore thought that I wasted a good amount of my youth calculating the derivative of this and the integral of that--even a precious semester as an undergrad in a liberal arts college.  Now, don't get me wrong.  I did not hate math (I was and am still rather good at it, actually), nor did I wish to disparage it, but until now I failed to see the point of studying it much beyond algebra II, that is for the practical, everyday non-engineering type--time that could be better spent reading the great books, exercising, composing love sonnets, or doing just about anything else.  Then I read a nice little essay by Colby Clark, a senior at Hillsdale College (one of the few colleges now worth attending in my opinion--a topic for another essay) entitled, "Recognizing a lion by its claws:  Poetry and Creativity in Mathematics" https://www.hillsdale.edu/hillsdale-blog/academics/classical-liberal-arts/recognizing-lion-claws-poetry-creativity-mathematics/.

Clark makes a good case for including the study of mathematics as part of a liberal arts education, as Hillsdale does.  Naturally, he gives a nod to the utilitarian aspects of math.  Then he quotes Hillsdale College Assistant Professor of Mathematics David Gaebler who adroitly points out, "The question of 'where math fits within the liberal arts' is similar to, "Where does French fit into the liberal arts?'"  Good point!  Paradigm shifted!

Gaebler and Clark would put reading Euclid right up there with reading "Shakespeare, Homer, and Dante."  Clark argues that mathematics is, like French and poetry, simply another language through which man can realize a greater understanding of the universe and that there is a certain beauty in this.  Furthermore, just as a poet may develop a signature style, so too may a mathematician develop a signature way of deriving a solution or illustrating a proof.  It was in this way that a rival of Sir Isaac Newton correctly surmised that Newton was the author of a published math problem that Newton had submitted anonymously.  He was able to "recognize the lion by its claws."