Skip to main content
Inlining questions; typo
Source Link
LSpice
  • 12.9k
  • 4
  • 45
  • 69

This question is partly motivated by this oneNever appeared forthcoming papers.

Motivation

Grothendieck's "Récoltes et Semailles" has been cited on various occasions on this forum. See for instance the answers to this questionGood papers/books/essays about the thought process behind mathematical research or this oneWhich mathematicians have influenced you the most?. However, these citations reflect only one aspect of "Récoltes et Semailles", namely the nontechnical reflexion about Mathematics and mathematical activity. Putting aside the wonderful "Clef du Yin et du Yang", whiswhich is a great reading almost unrelated to Mathematics, I remember reading in "Récoltes et Semailles" a bunch of technical mathematical reflexions, almost all of which were above my head due to my having but a smattering of algebraic geometry. However, I recall for instance reading Grothendieck's opinion that standard conjectures were false, and claiming he had in mind a few related conjectures (which he doesn't state precisely) which might turn out to be the right ones. I still don't even know what the standard conjectures state and thus didn't understand anything, but I know many people are working hard to prove these conjectures. I've thus often wondered what was the value of Grothendieck's mathematical statements (which are not limited to standard conjectures) in "Récoltes et Semailles".

The questions I'd like to ask here are the following:

Have the mathematical parts of "Récoltes et Semailles" proved influential? If so, is there any written evidence of it, or any account of the development of the mathematical ideas that Grothendieck has expressed in this text? If the answer to the first question is negative, what are the difficulties involved in implementing Grothendieck's ideas?

Idle thoughts

In the latter case, I could come up with some possible explanations:

  1. Those who could have developed and spread these ideas didn't read "Récoltes et Semailles" seriously and thus nobody was aware of their existence.
  2. Those people took the mathematical content seriously but it was beyond anyone's reach to understand what Grothendieck was trying to get at because of the idiosyncratic writing style.
    Should one of these two suppositions be backed by evidence, I'd appreciate a factual answer.
  3. The ideas were already outdated or have been proven wrong.
    If this is the case, I'd appreciate a reference.

Epanorthosis

Given that "Pursuing Stacks" and "Les Dérivateurs" were written approximately in 1983 and 1990 respectively and have proved influential (see Maltsiniotis's page for the latter text, somewhat less known), I would be surprised should Grothendieck's mathematical ideas expressed around 1985 be worthless.

This question is partly motivated by this one.

Motivation

Grothendieck's "Récoltes et Semailles" has been cited on various occasions on this forum. See for instance the answers to this question or this one. However, these citations reflect only one aspect of "Récoltes et Semailles", namely the nontechnical reflexion about Mathematics and mathematical activity. Putting aside the wonderful "Clef du Yin et du Yang", whis is a great reading almost unrelated to Mathematics, I remember reading in "Récoltes et Semailles" a bunch of technical mathematical reflexions, almost all of which were above my head due to my having but a smattering of algebraic geometry. However, I recall for instance reading Grothendieck's opinion that standard conjectures were false, and claiming he had in mind a few related conjectures (which he doesn't state precisely) which might turn out to be the right ones. I still don't even know what the standard conjectures state and thus didn't understand anything, but I know many people are working hard to prove these conjectures. I've thus often wondered what was the value of Grothendieck's mathematical statements (which are not limited to standard conjectures) in "Récoltes et Semailles".

The questions I'd like to ask here are the following:

Have the mathematical parts of "Récoltes et Semailles" proved influential? If so, is there any written evidence of it, or any account of the development of the mathematical ideas that Grothendieck has expressed in this text? If the answer to the first question is negative, what are the difficulties involved in implementing Grothendieck's ideas?

Idle thoughts

In the latter case, I could come up with some possible explanations:

  1. Those who could have developed and spread these ideas didn't read "Récoltes et Semailles" seriously and thus nobody was aware of their existence.
  2. Those people took the mathematical content seriously but it was beyond anyone's reach to understand what Grothendieck was trying to get at because of the idiosyncratic writing style.
    Should one of these two suppositions be backed by evidence, I'd appreciate a factual answer.
  3. The ideas were already outdated or have been proven wrong.
    If this is the case, I'd appreciate a reference.

Epanorthosis

Given that "Pursuing Stacks" and "Les Dérivateurs" were written approximately in 1983 and 1990 respectively and have proved influential (see Maltsiniotis's page for the latter text, somewhat less known), I would be surprised should Grothendieck's mathematical ideas expressed around 1985 be worthless.

This question is partly motivated by Never appeared forthcoming papers.

Motivation

Grothendieck's "Récoltes et Semailles" has been cited on various occasions on this forum. See for instance the answers to Good papers/books/essays about the thought process behind mathematical research or Which mathematicians have influenced you the most?. However, these citations reflect only one aspect of "Récoltes et Semailles", namely the nontechnical reflexion about Mathematics and mathematical activity. Putting aside the wonderful "Clef du Yin et du Yang", which is a great reading almost unrelated to Mathematics, I remember reading in "Récoltes et Semailles" a bunch of technical mathematical reflexions, almost all of which were above my head due to my having but a smattering of algebraic geometry. However, I recall for instance reading Grothendieck's opinion that standard conjectures were false, and claiming he had in mind a few related conjectures (which he doesn't state precisely) which might turn out to be the right ones. I still don't even know what the standard conjectures state and thus didn't understand anything, but I know many people are working hard to prove these conjectures. I've thus often wondered what was the value of Grothendieck's mathematical statements (which are not limited to standard conjectures) in "Récoltes et Semailles".

The questions I'd like to ask here are the following:

Have the mathematical parts of "Récoltes et Semailles" proved influential? If so, is there any written evidence of it, or any account of the development of the mathematical ideas that Grothendieck has expressed in this text? If the answer to the first question is negative, what are the difficulties involved in implementing Grothendieck's ideas?

Idle thoughts

In the latter case, I could come up with some possible explanations:

  1. Those who could have developed and spread these ideas didn't read "Récoltes et Semailles" seriously and thus nobody was aware of their existence.
  2. Those people took the mathematical content seriously but it was beyond anyone's reach to understand what Grothendieck was trying to get at because of the idiosyncratic writing style.
    Should one of these two suppositions be backed by evidence, I'd appreciate a factual answer.
  3. The ideas were already outdated or have been proven wrong.
    If this is the case, I'd appreciate a reference.

Epanorthosis

Given that "Pursuing Stacks" and "Les Dérivateurs" were written approximately in 1983 and 1990 respectively and have proved influential (see Maltsiniotis's page for the latter text, somewhat less known), I would be surprised should Grothendieck's mathematical ideas expressed around 1985 be worthless.

fixed header formatting (seems to have broken after the CommonMark migration: https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/348746)
Source Link

This question is partly motivated by this one.

##Motivation##

Motivation

Grothendieck's "Récoltes et Semailles" has been cited on various occasions on this forum. See for instance the answers to this question or this one. However, these citations reflect only one aspect of "Récoltes et Semailles", namely the nontechnical reflexion about Mathematics and mathematical activity. Putting aside the wonderful "Clef du Yin et du Yang", whis is a great reading almost unrelated to Mathematics, I remember reading in "Récoltes et Semailles" a bunch of technical mathematical reflexions, almost all of which were above my head due to my having but a smattering of algebraic geometry. However, I recall for instance reading Grothendieck's opinion that standard conjectures were false, and claiming he had in mind a few related conjectures (which he doesn't state precisely) which might turn out to be the right ones. I still don't even know what the standard conjectures state and thus didn't understand anything, but I know many people are working hard to prove these conjectures. I've thus often wondered what was the value of Grothendieck's mathematical statements (which are not limited to standard conjectures) in "Récoltes et Semailles".

The questions I'd like to ask here are the following:

Have the mathematical parts of "Récoltes et Semailles" proved influential? If so, is there any written evidence of it, or any account of the development of the mathematical ideas that Grothendieck has expressed in this text? If the answer to the first question is negative, what are the difficulties involved in implementing Grothendieck's ideas?

Idle thoughts

##Idle thoughts## InIn the latter case, I could come up with some possible explanations:

  1. Those who could have developed and spread these ideas didn't read "Récoltes et Semailles" seriously and thus nobody was aware of their existence.
  2. Those people took the mathematical content seriously but it was beyond anyone's reach to understand what Grothendieck was trying to get at because of the idiosyncratic writing style.
    Should one of these two suppositions be backed by evidence, I'd appreciate a factual answer.
  3. The ideas were already outdated or have been proven wrong.
    If this is the case, I'd appreciate a reference.

Epanorthosis

##Epanorthosis## GivenGiven that "Pursuing Stacks" and "Les Dérivateurs" were written approximately in 1983 and 1990 respectively and have proved influential (see Maltsiniotis's page for the latter text, somewhat less known), I would be surprised should Grothendieck's mathematical ideas expressed around 1985 be worthless.

This question is partly motivated by this one.

##Motivation##

Grothendieck's "Récoltes et Semailles" has been cited on various occasions on this forum. See for instance the answers to this question or this one. However, these citations reflect only one aspect of "Récoltes et Semailles", namely the nontechnical reflexion about Mathematics and mathematical activity. Putting aside the wonderful "Clef du Yin et du Yang", whis is a great reading almost unrelated to Mathematics, I remember reading in "Récoltes et Semailles" a bunch of technical mathematical reflexions, almost all of which were above my head due to my having but a smattering of algebraic geometry. However, I recall for instance reading Grothendieck's opinion that standard conjectures were false, and claiming he had in mind a few related conjectures (which he doesn't state precisely) which might turn out to be the right ones. I still don't even know what the standard conjectures state and thus didn't understand anything, but I know many people are working hard to prove these conjectures. I've thus often wondered what was the value of Grothendieck's mathematical statements (which are not limited to standard conjectures) in "Récoltes et Semailles".

The questions I'd like to ask here are the following:

Have the mathematical parts of "Récoltes et Semailles" proved influential? If so, is there any written evidence of it, or any account of the development of the mathematical ideas that Grothendieck has expressed in this text? If the answer to the first question is negative, what are the difficulties involved in implementing Grothendieck's ideas?

##Idle thoughts## In the latter case, I could come up with some possible explanations:

  1. Those who could have developed and spread these ideas didn't read "Récoltes et Semailles" seriously and thus nobody was aware of their existence.
  2. Those people took the mathematical content seriously but it was beyond anyone's reach to understand what Grothendieck was trying to get at because of the idiosyncratic writing style.
    Should one of these two suppositions be backed by evidence, I'd appreciate a factual answer.
  3. The ideas were already outdated or have been proven wrong.
    If this is the case, I'd appreciate a reference.

##Epanorthosis## Given that "Pursuing Stacks" and "Les Dérivateurs" were written approximately in 1983 and 1990 respectively and have proved influential (see Maltsiniotis's page for the latter text, somewhat less known), I would be surprised should Grothendieck's mathematical ideas expressed around 1985 be worthless.

This question is partly motivated by this one.

Motivation

Grothendieck's "Récoltes et Semailles" has been cited on various occasions on this forum. See for instance the answers to this question or this one. However, these citations reflect only one aspect of "Récoltes et Semailles", namely the nontechnical reflexion about Mathematics and mathematical activity. Putting aside the wonderful "Clef du Yin et du Yang", whis is a great reading almost unrelated to Mathematics, I remember reading in "Récoltes et Semailles" a bunch of technical mathematical reflexions, almost all of which were above my head due to my having but a smattering of algebraic geometry. However, I recall for instance reading Grothendieck's opinion that standard conjectures were false, and claiming he had in mind a few related conjectures (which he doesn't state precisely) which might turn out to be the right ones. I still don't even know what the standard conjectures state and thus didn't understand anything, but I know many people are working hard to prove these conjectures. I've thus often wondered what was the value of Grothendieck's mathematical statements (which are not limited to standard conjectures) in "Récoltes et Semailles".

The questions I'd like to ask here are the following:

Have the mathematical parts of "Récoltes et Semailles" proved influential? If so, is there any written evidence of it, or any account of the development of the mathematical ideas that Grothendieck has expressed in this text? If the answer to the first question is negative, what are the difficulties involved in implementing Grothendieck's ideas?

Idle thoughts

In the latter case, I could come up with some possible explanations:

  1. Those who could have developed and spread these ideas didn't read "Récoltes et Semailles" seriously and thus nobody was aware of their existence.
  2. Those people took the mathematical content seriously but it was beyond anyone's reach to understand what Grothendieck was trying to get at because of the idiosyncratic writing style.
    Should one of these two suppositions be backed by evidence, I'd appreciate a factual answer.
  3. The ideas were already outdated or have been proven wrong.
    If this is the case, I'd appreciate a reference.

Epanorthosis

Given that "Pursuing Stacks" and "Les Dérivateurs" were written approximately in 1983 and 1990 respectively and have proved influential (see Maltsiniotis's page for the latter text, somewhat less known), I would be surprised should Grothendieck's mathematical ideas expressed around 1985 be worthless.

http -> https
Source Link
Martin Sleziak
  • 4.7k
  • 4
  • 35
  • 40

This question is partly motivated by this one.

##Motivation##

Grothendieck's "Récoltes et Semailles" has been cited on various occasions on this forum. See for instance the answers to this question or this one. However, these citations reflect only one aspect of "Récoltes et Semailles", namely the nontechnical reflexion about Mathematics and mathematical activity. Putting aside the wonderful "Clef du Yin et du Yang", whis is a great reading almost unrelated to Mathematics, I remember reading in "Récoltes et Semailles" a bunch of technical mathematical reflexions, almost all of which were above my head due to my having but a smattering of algebraic geometry. However, I recall for instance reading Grothendieck's opinion that standard conjectures were false, and claiming he had in mind a few related conjectures (which he doesn't state precisely) which might turn out to be the right ones. I still don't even know what the standard conjectures state and thus didn't understand anything, but I know many people are working hard to prove these conjectures. I've thus often wondered what was the value of Grothendieck's mathematical statements (which are not limited to standard conjectures) in "Récoltes et Semailles".

The questions I'd like to ask here are the following:

Have the mathematical parts of "Récoltes et Semailles" proved influential? If so, is there any written evidence of it, or any account of the development of the mathematical ideas that Grothendieck has expressed in this text? If the answer to the first question is negative, what are the difficulties involved in implementing Grothendieck's ideas?

##Idle thoughts## In the latter case, I could come up with some possible explanations:

  1. Those who could have developed and spread these ideas didn't read "Récoltes et Semailles" seriously and thus nobody was aware of their existence.
  2. Those people took the mathematical content seriously but it was beyond anyone's reach to understand what Grothendieck was trying to get at because of the idiosyncratic writing style.
    Should one of these two suppositions be backed by evidence, I'd appreciate a factual answer.
  3. The ideas were already outdated or have been proven wrong.
    If this is the case, I'd appreciate a reference.

##Epanorthosis## Given that "Pursuing Stacks" and "Les Dérivateurs" were written approximately in 1983 and 1990 respectively and have proved influential (see Maltsiniotis's pageMaltsiniotis's page for the latter text, somewhat less known), I would be surprised should Grothendieck's mathematical ideas expressed around 1985 be worthless.

This question is partly motivated by this one.

##Motivation##

Grothendieck's "Récoltes et Semailles" has been cited on various occasions on this forum. See for instance the answers to this question or this one. However, these citations reflect only one aspect of "Récoltes et Semailles", namely the nontechnical reflexion about Mathematics and mathematical activity. Putting aside the wonderful "Clef du Yin et du Yang", whis is a great reading almost unrelated to Mathematics, I remember reading in "Récoltes et Semailles" a bunch of technical mathematical reflexions, almost all of which were above my head due to my having but a smattering of algebraic geometry. However, I recall for instance reading Grothendieck's opinion that standard conjectures were false, and claiming he had in mind a few related conjectures (which he doesn't state precisely) which might turn out to be the right ones. I still don't even know what the standard conjectures state and thus didn't understand anything, but I know many people are working hard to prove these conjectures. I've thus often wondered what was the value of Grothendieck's mathematical statements (which are not limited to standard conjectures) in "Récoltes et Semailles".

The questions I'd like to ask here are the following:

Have the mathematical parts of "Récoltes et Semailles" proved influential? If so, is there any written evidence of it, or any account of the development of the mathematical ideas that Grothendieck has expressed in this text? If the answer to the first question is negative, what are the difficulties involved in implementing Grothendieck's ideas?

##Idle thoughts## In the latter case, I could come up with some possible explanations:

  1. Those who could have developed and spread these ideas didn't read "Récoltes et Semailles" seriously and thus nobody was aware of their existence.
  2. Those people took the mathematical content seriously but it was beyond anyone's reach to understand what Grothendieck was trying to get at because of the idiosyncratic writing style.
    Should one of these two suppositions be backed by evidence, I'd appreciate a factual answer.
  3. The ideas were already outdated or have been proven wrong.
    If this is the case, I'd appreciate a reference.

##Epanorthosis## Given that "Pursuing Stacks" and "Les Dérivateurs" were written approximately in 1983 and 1990 respectively and have proved influential (see Maltsiniotis's page for the latter text, somewhat less known), I would be surprised should Grothendieck's mathematical ideas expressed around 1985 be worthless.

This question is partly motivated by this one.

##Motivation##

Grothendieck's "Récoltes et Semailles" has been cited on various occasions on this forum. See for instance the answers to this question or this one. However, these citations reflect only one aspect of "Récoltes et Semailles", namely the nontechnical reflexion about Mathematics and mathematical activity. Putting aside the wonderful "Clef du Yin et du Yang", whis is a great reading almost unrelated to Mathematics, I remember reading in "Récoltes et Semailles" a bunch of technical mathematical reflexions, almost all of which were above my head due to my having but a smattering of algebraic geometry. However, I recall for instance reading Grothendieck's opinion that standard conjectures were false, and claiming he had in mind a few related conjectures (which he doesn't state precisely) which might turn out to be the right ones. I still don't even know what the standard conjectures state and thus didn't understand anything, but I know many people are working hard to prove these conjectures. I've thus often wondered what was the value of Grothendieck's mathematical statements (which are not limited to standard conjectures) in "Récoltes et Semailles".

The questions I'd like to ask here are the following:

Have the mathematical parts of "Récoltes et Semailles" proved influential? If so, is there any written evidence of it, or any account of the development of the mathematical ideas that Grothendieck has expressed in this text? If the answer to the first question is negative, what are the difficulties involved in implementing Grothendieck's ideas?

##Idle thoughts## In the latter case, I could come up with some possible explanations:

  1. Those who could have developed and spread these ideas didn't read "Récoltes et Semailles" seriously and thus nobody was aware of their existence.
  2. Those people took the mathematical content seriously but it was beyond anyone's reach to understand what Grothendieck was trying to get at because of the idiosyncratic writing style.
    Should one of these two suppositions be backed by evidence, I'd appreciate a factual answer.
  3. The ideas were already outdated or have been proven wrong.
    If this is the case, I'd appreciate a reference.

##Epanorthosis## Given that "Pursuing Stacks" and "Les Dérivateurs" were written approximately in 1983 and 1990 respectively and have proved influential (see Maltsiniotis's page for the latter text, somewhat less known), I would be surprised should Grothendieck's mathematical ideas expressed around 1985 be worthless.

replaced http://mathoverflow.net/ with https://mathoverflow.net/
Source Link
Loading
Added a few words to make sentence more logical and hopefully better English.
Source Link
Jonathan Chiche
  • 2.4k
  • 1
  • 28
  • 25
Loading
Edited according to Willie Wong's comments so as to make the question less argumentative.; added 7 characters in body
Source Link
Jonathan Chiche
  • 2.4k
  • 1
  • 28
  • 25
Loading
Source Link
Jonathan Chiche
  • 2.4k
  • 1
  • 28
  • 25
Loading