Duel at Dawn: Heroes, Martyrs, and the Rise of Modern Mathematics by Amir Alexander

Author:Amir Alexander [Alexander, Amir]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Mathematics, History & Philosophy
ISBN: 9780674046610
Google: ehQaU-CVnL4C
Amazon: 0674061748
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Published: 2010-07-14T22:00:00+00:00

Pariah in Paris

In 1838 the Duke of Bordeaux reached majority, ending Cauchy’s role at the exiled court. Eight long years of exile had taken their toll on the mathematician, and once he felt that his duty to the monarch had been fully discharged, he decided to return home to Paris. Cauchy had always been close to his birth family, which had remained in Paris, and the desire to be near his parents as they aged likely played a role in his decision. His return certainly did not mean that Cauchy had made his peace with Louis Philippe’s July Monarchy. To the contrary, his opposition to the regime was as unbending as it ever was, he remained adamant in his refusal to swear allegiance to it, and he never stopped working toward its overthrow and the return of the Bourbons. But such a restoration appeared a very remote possibility in 1838, and there seemed little point in trying to wait out the exile. Perhaps Cauchy also believed that he could work more effectively for the Bourbon cause from Paris than from abroad. Be that as it may, on October 22, 1838, after eight years of absence, Cauchy once again attended a meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences. It was the first step in his campaign to recover his position in French scientific life that he had lost in 1830. It would last for the rest of his life.

Early on, Cauchy’s prospects seemed promising. Eight years of separation seemed to have had a soothing effect on the attitudes of France’s leading mathematicians toward Cauchy, and many of them were willing to welcome their brilliant but difficult colleague back into their ranks. In 1839 Cauchy’s old nemesis Prony died, creating a vacancy at the Bureau des longitudes, and Cauchy was immediately considered the leading candidate to replace him. Although its name implies a specific technical competency, the bureau was in fact a highly prestigious institution whose members were nearly always academicians. The position was highly desirable because unlike membership in the Academy of Sciences, an appointment to the bureau also carried with it a respectable salary. In November, with support from his old friend Biot, but also from Arago, his old critic at the École polytechnique, Cauchy was elected to a position in the Bureau des longitudes.252

At this point, however, Cauchy’s candidacy encountered what turned out to be an insurmountable roadblock. The bureau was technically a part of the French civil service and therefore required that its members swear an oath of loyalty to the regime. But Cauchy in 1839 was just as determined not to swear allegiance as he had been nine years earlier. Flatly refusing to take the oath, Cauchy, although elected to the bureau, could not be confirmed in his position, could not take part in the institution’s meetings, and could not be paid. Over the next few years successive ministers of public instruction in Louis-Philippe’s cabinet tried to reach a compromise and reduce to a minimum the conditions Cauchy would have to fulfill in order to comply with the loyalty-oath requirement.

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