Borges and Mathematics
F05
Jonathan Pitcher, Jason Zimba
Jorge Luis Borges was one of the most important writers of the 20th century. Many of his short stories and essays were concerned with philosophical, metaphysical, and mathematical questions. The thesis motivating this course is that if we know the mathematics that Borges referred to, then we will read him differently, and we will read him better. Therefore, we will spend half of our time engaged in criticism of the texts, and half of our time learning to solve the kinds of mathematical problems Borges wrote about: problems dealing with combinatorics and probability, geometry and symmetry, the infinite and the infinitesimal, and the history of mathematical thought. The course will be taught in English using translated texts. There are no mathematical prerequisites.