Alexander Grothendieck: a Country Known Only by Name Pierre Cartier
Alexander Grothendieck: A Country Known Only by Name Pierre Cartier To the memory of Monique Cartier (1932–2007) This article originally appeared in Inference: International Review of Science, (inference-review.com), volume 1, issue 1, October 15, 2014), in both French and English. It was translated from French by the editors of Inference and is reprinted here with their permission. An earlier version and translation of this Cartier essay also appeared under the title “A Country of which Nothing is Known but the Name: Grothendieck and ‘Motives’,” in Leila Schneps, ed., Alexandre Grothendieck: A Mathematical Portrait (Somerville, MA: International Press, 2014), 269–88. Alexander Grothendieck died on November 19, 2014. The Notices is planning a memorial article for a future issue. here is no need to introduce Alexander deepening of the concept of a geometric point.1 Such Grothendieck to mathematicians: he is research may seem trifling, but the metaphysi- one of the great scientists of the twenti- cal stakes are considerable; the philosophical eth century. His personality should not problems it engenders are still far from solved. be confused with his reputation among In its ultimate form, this research, Grothendieck’s Tgossips, that of a man on the margin of society, proudest, revolved around the concept of a motive, who undertook the deliberate destruction of his or pattern, viewed as a beacon illuminating all the work, or at any rate the conscious destruction of incarnations of a given object through their various his own scientific school, even though it had been ephemeral cloaks. But this concept also represents enthusiastically accepted and developed by first- the point at which his incomplete work opened rank colleagues and disciples.
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