What is a profound result in mathematics?
pp. 89-100
in: Evandro Agazzi, György Darvas (eds), Philosophy of mathematics today, Berlin, Springer, 1997Abstract
1. Proust, with regard to the latest works of the musician Vinteuil, speaks about a "transposition in the sonorous order of depth" (La Prisonnière, Pléiade II, p. 257). There is certainly a transposition of depth in the mathematical order, since mathematicians are apparently in agreement to qualify a result or a problem as "profound". It is the sense of this expression which we would like to elucidate.
