/lit/ - Literature

>>22168922
"He found a copy of Adrien-Marie Legendre's Éléments de Géométrie, which, it is said, he read "like a novel" and mastered at the first reading. At 15, he was reading the original papers of Joseph-Louis Lagrange, such as the Réflexions sur la résolution algébrique des équations which likely motivated his later work on equation theory."

What are some biographies about great men in science? Last time I posted this thread someone recommended "The Greatest Benefit to Mankind", which is a history of medicine (and which I do intend to read); If I had to recommend a book, however, it would probably recommend "Men of Mathematics" which I found to be excellent (though I do not know how accurate it is).

Évariste Galois' life was really tragic and a shame I think.

>>19571970
> all great men in history were despots
No, not necessarily, many scientists, philosophers, writers, and poets did very good work while still very young and I would consider these people to have been "great men".
Dilate.

>>14755431
>Once I hit the Enlightenment, from what I can tell, it's going to get a lot more difficult
Everything is pretty straightforward until around the early 1800s, with the emergence of abstract algebra. Thus begins a transitional period of abstraction without rigor, until the 1880s with the emergence of analytic philosophy and mathematical maturity.

>>12483900
Yes, eminently so. Liberal arts faggots barely even register.

Could it be that he was set up by someone, to die?

>Évariste Galois; 25 October 1811 – 31 May 1832) was a French mathematician born in Bourg-la-Reine. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a problem standing for 350 years. His work laid the foundations for Galois theory and group theory, two major branches of abstract algebra, and the subfield of Galois connections. He died at age 20 from wounds suffered in a duel.
>Although his expulsion would have formally taken effect on 4 January 1831, Galois quit school immediately and joined the staunchly Republican artillery unit of the National Guard. He divided his time between his mathematical work and his political affiliations. Due to controversy surrounding the unit, soon after Galois became a member, on 31 December 1830, the artillery of the National Guard was disbanded out of fear that they might destabilize the government. At around the same time, nineteen officers of Galois' former unit were arrested and charged with conspiracy to overthrow the government.
>Early in the morning of 30 May 1832, he was shot in the abdomen, abandoned by his opponents and seconds, and was found by a passing farmer. He expired the following morning at ten o'clock in the Cochin hospital (probably of peritonitis)

His last words to his younger brother before the duel:
>Don't cry, Alfred! I need all my courage to die at twenty.