Philosopher

My recent leisure reading is I Magnifici Dieci (愛上數學) by Anna Cerasoli.

This is an excellent book on the history of mathematics. Vivian bought it for the benefit of our princesses – although I suspect it will take another 5 or 6 years before Euterpe could understand its content.

Nonetheless, it is an enjoyable reading for me. Notably, a little story of Pythagoras is worthy of re-telling.

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One day, Pythagoras met the King of Greece at the Olympus Stadium.

The King asked, “What’s your name? How do you earn your living?”

The famous mathematician looked up and said proudly, “I am a philosopher!”

But the King had not heard of that last word (which was newly invented by Pythagoras that and there), and he asked what it meant.

“Your majesty, pray take a look at all the people in this stadium. Some come here for money, some for glory, a few others use their eyes to observe what had happened and try to gain insight on what’s going to happen. We call the last group philosophers.”