Confusingly understandable

A mathematics lecture book for most students is obviously only essential for educational purposes and not for leisure reading. Compared to other novels, a mathematics lecture book would not stand a chance in overpowering the charismatic beauty of a novel. But imagine mathematics incorporated in a novel, could this be even possible? How complicated and boring it is to read a story about mathematics, who would even bother reading one? The characters of the story would probably be bored people trying to solve the uncertainties and phenomenon of life (though I thank all mathematicians for most innovations we have to day) using mathematical equations. The novel’s story plot would probably be complicated as the subject itself. Now the book would even sound worst if philosophy would be added in it. A philosophically inclined mathematics novel, I’m sure that only a few people would read one.

Those hasty generalizations above was proven wrong by the authors Gaurav Suri and Hartosh Singh Bal who wrote a novel about mathematics and the philosophy behind mathematics. Their book was entitled A Certain Ambiguity. Even the title of the book itself is confusing how much more would be the story.  It is a novel that talks about how mathematics is relevant to human understanding of everything that encompasses out universe. All the pages in the book talks about mathematics, not a single page was left untouched by mathematics. Mathematical philosophy was the backbone of the story and mathematics itself was the heart.

The story started with a sentimental flashback experienced by Ravi Kapoor the main character, back when he was a child, during the time when his mathematician grandfather was still alive. It was the time when his grandfather had given him a “magical” math problem to try on a calculator. The magical math problem has loose its enchantments when Ravi was able to solve the pattern and solution behind the problem. This certain event in Ravi’s life had opened the doors of his heart to the beauty and world behind mathematics. His grandfather died the next day however, this had become his inspiration in pursuing his love for mathematics by continuing the mathematical journey his father had started.

During his adolescence life, he was accepted to Stanford University and was pursuing towards a career in economics. Ravi took a course entitled: “Thinking about inifinity” thought by professor Nico who later on became his friend. Professor Nico was incidentally a person who specializes in the field of Ravi’s Grandfather. Nico once found the paper of Ravi’s grandfather, where there was a footnote that stated that the main ideas of his paper were developed or were analyzed inside New Jersey jail. During this time there were two separate but linking narratives in the story. One of it was Professor Nico’s lectures about different math topics that mainly discuss about the significance and importance of infinity. The other one is Ravis’ research into unveiling the story behind his grandfather’s philosophical discussions on the underlying principles of truth, certainty and mathematics in the jail with a judge assigned to investigate his case during the time he was imprisoned. He found out that his grandfather was jailed due to a blasphemy law.

The main mathematical topics that were discussed in the book was properly written and discussed by the authors as expected because they are both wise mathematicians. However due to lack of mathematical background about some of those principles mentioned it was hard for me to understand most of it. For readers who did not have that enough background in different philosophical mathematics it would be hard for them to grasp the concepts that were thought or mentioned in the book that easily. But most of the math topics discussed were Zeno’s paradoxes, Godel’s incompleteness theory and Paul Cohen’s consistency theory. 

During Ravi’s grandfather’s imprisonment the grandfather and the judge discussed of many clashing ideas about certainty and the axiomatic method. There were many questions and ideas that were raised about the uncertainties of life. Euclid’s axioms were mentioned about how he had expressed the geometrical structure of the world which also had led to a question if his axioms were just a product of faith that was passed on from generation to generation. If ever this was true why do the non-Euclidean geometries exist? There were many clashing points that were discussed but were indeed fascinating.

At the end of the story the authors had even added a little love story in the book where Ravi married Claire one of professor Nico’s math student, Ravi’s classmate in his infinity course. It was also mentioned that Ravi preferred a mathematical career instead of an economics career where he would probably be wealthier. The book as a whole was never boring as expected of a mathematically philosophical book.

Though the story has a rough outline, a hard one to discuss and be incorporated in a novel but the author had pulled it off and had created an outstanding outline. The authors of the story had managed to create a plot that was relevant to present day viewpoints. The book was field with learning where each page a reader’s mind would keep on working trying to understand mathematical philosophy. This book would exercise the brain to think deeply and think beyond what we are capable off. The authors were able to present and convince me as reader that math is an essential part of mathematics of course, scientists, each human life and all that encompasses the universe. Though this book was a fiction the author was able to instill in our mind that mathematics is not a fiction and it is indeed part of our reality.