Mathematical Induction

Abstract

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1885), sometimes called the Prince of Mathematics, is one of the greatest mathematicians all times. In addition to an incredible ability to compute (especially important in the 1800s) and an unsurpassed talent for mathematical proof, Gauss had an inventive imagination and a restless interest in nature and he made important discoveries in a staggering range of pure and applied mathematics. He was also a pioneer in the constructionist sense, digging deeply into many of the accepted mathematical truths of his time in order to really understand what everyone “knew” had to be true. Perhaps the only really unfortunate side to Gauss is that he wrote about his work only very sparingly and many mathematicians that followed him were doomed to reinvent things that he already knew.

There is a tradition of opposition between adherents of induction and deduction. In my view it would be just as sensible for the two ends of a worm to quarrel. (Whitehead)