Andreas Speiser (June 10, 1885 – October 12, 1970) was a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland *Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri *Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia *Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports * Swiss Internation ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

philosopher of science A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

Life and work

Speiser studied in

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

, starting in 1904, notably with

David Hilbert David Hilbert (; ; 23 January 1862 – 14 February 1943) was a German mathematician, one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Hilbert discovered and developed a broad range of fundamental ideas in many ...

Felix Klein Christian Felix Klein (; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work with group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the associations between geometry and grou ...

Hermann Minkowski Hermann Minkowski (; ; 22 June 1864 – 12 January 1909) was a German mathematician and professor at Königsberg, Zürich and Göttingen. He created and developed the geometry of numbers and used geometrical methods to solve problems in number t ...

. In 1917 he became full-time professor at the

University of Zurich The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...

but later relocated in Basel. During 1924/25 he was president of the Swiss Mathematical Association. Speiser worked on number theory, group theory, and the theory of Riemann surfaces. He organized the translation of

Leonard Dickson Leonard Eugene Dickson (January 22, 1874 – January 17, 1954) was an American mathematician. He was one of the first American researchers in abstract algebra, in particular the theory of finite fields and classical groups, and is also reme ...

's seminal 1923 book ''Algebras and Their Arithmetics'' (''Algebren und ihre Zahlentheorie'', 1927), which was heavily influenced by the work on the theory of algebras done by the schools of

Emmy Noether Amalie Emmy NoetherEmmy is the '' Rufname'', the second of two official given names, intended for daily use. Cf. for example the résumé submitted by Noether to Erlangen University in 1907 (Erlangen University archive, ''Promotionsakt Emmy Noeth ...

and

Helmut Hasse Helmut Hasse (; 25 August 1898 – 26 December 1979) was a German mathematician working in algebraic number theory, known for fundamental contributions to class field theory, the application of ''p''-adic numbers to local class field theory and ...

. Speiser also added an appendix on ideal theory to Dickson's book. Speiser's book ''Theorie der Gruppen endlicher Ordnung'' is a classic, richly illustrated work on group theory. In this book, there are group theoretical applications in Galois theory, elementary number theory, and Platonic solids, as well as extensive studies of ornaments, such as those that Speiser studied on a 1928 trip to Egypt. Speiser also worked on the history of mathematics and was the chief editor for the Euler Commission's edition of

Leonhard Euler Leonhard Euler ( , ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries ...

's ''Opera Omnia'' and the editor of the works of

Johann Heinrich Lambert Johann Heinrich Lambert (, ''Jean-Henri Lambert'' in French; 26 or 28 August 1728 – 25 September 1777) was a polymath from the Republic of Mulhouse, generally referred to as either Swiss or French, who made important contributions to the subject ...

. As a philosopher Speiser was chiefly concerned with

Plato Plato ( ; grc-gre, Πλάτων ; 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in Athens during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. He founded the Platonist school of thought and the Academy, the first institution ...

and wrote a commentary on the Parmenides Dialogue, but he was also an expert of the philosophies of

Plotinus Plotinus (; grc-gre, Πλωτῖνος, ''Plōtînos''; – 270 CE) was a philosopher in the Hellenistic tradition, born and raised in Roman Egypt. Plotinus is regarded by modern scholarship as the founder of Neoplatonism. His teacher wa ...

and

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...

. Speiser's doctoral students include J. J. Burckhardt.

Writings

*''Die Theorie der Gruppen von endlicher Ordnung – mit Anwendungen auf algebraische Zahlen und Gleichungen sowie auf die Kristallographie.'' Springer 1923 (1st edition), 1927 (2nd edition), 1937 (3rd edition); Birkhäuser 1956. *''Klassische Stücke der Mathematik.'' Orell Füssli 1925 (mit Abdruck von Quellen, u.a. auch Dante, Rousseau). *''Leonhard Euler und die Deutsche Philosophie.'' Orell Füssli 1934. *''Leonhard Euler.'' In: ''Große Schweizer.'' Atlantis Verlag, Zürich 1939, 1940, S.1-6. *''Die mathematische Denkweise.'' Rascher 1932, Birkhäuser 1945, 1952. *''Leonhard Euler. Vortrag gehalten an der Generalversammlung des S.I.A. in Basel am 11. September 1949''. Schweizerische Bauzeitung, Jg.67, Nr.48. 26. November 1949, Zürich. *''Elemente der Philosophie und Mathematik.'' Birkhäuser 1952. *''Die Geistige Arbeit.'' Birkhäuser 1955 (Vorträge). *''Ein Parmenideskommentar – Studien zur Platonischen Dialektik.'' Koehler, Leipzig, Stuttgart, 1937, 1959.
''Ueber Riemannsche Flächen.''
Comm.Math.Helvetici (CMH), Bd.2, 1930, S.284-293.
''Zur Theorie der Substitutionsgruppen.''
Mathematische Annalen, Bd. 75, 1914, S.443-448.
''Zahlentheoretische Sätze aus der Gruppentheorie.''
Math.Zeitschrift Bd.5, 1919, S. 1-6.
''Naturphilosophische Untersuchungen von Euler und Riemann.''
Crelle Journal Bd. 157, 1927, S.105-114.
''Zahlentheorie in rationalen Algebren.''
CMH, Bd.8, 1936, S.391-406.
''Riemann'sche Flächen vom hyperbolischen Typus.''
CMH Bd.10, 1937, S.232-242.
''Geometrisches zur Riemannschen Zetafunktion.''
Mathematische Annalen Bd.110, 1934, S.514-521.
''Einteilung der sämtlichen Werke Leonhard Eulers.''
CMH Bd.20, 1947, S. 288-318.

References

Martin Eichler Martin Maximilian Emil Eichler (29 March 1912 – 7 October 1992) was a German number theorist. Eichler received his Ph.D. from the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg in 1936. Eichler and Goro Shimura developed a method to cons ...

, Nachruf in den Verhandlungen der Schweizer Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, Bd.150, 1970, S.325 *J. J. Burckhardt, Nachruf in Vierteljahresschrift der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft Bd.115, 1970, 471 *J. J. Burckhardt: ''Die Mathematik an der Universität Zurich 1916-1950 unter den Professoren R. Fueter, A. Speiser und P. Finsler'', Basel, 1980

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Speiser, Andreas Swiss mathematicians 1885 births 1970 deaths Philosophers of science Swiss historians of mathematics

Life and work

Writings

See also

References

External links