Prof. John Wilson

On 2nd of November, George Boole’s 203rd birthday, Professor John Wilson (University of Oxford) delivered the 4th Annual Boole Lecture “Creativity in mathematics and the arts“. At the beginning Professor Andrei Zvelindovsky introduced the lecturer, who is a prominent  algebraist having well-established links with the Charlotte Scott Research Centre for Algebra in Lincoln. This lecture raised very interesting questions on connections and parallels between arts and mathematics. It was well attended by staff, students and members of the public and attracted numerous questions and comments.

The lecture examined the role played by rules or laws in mathematics and the arts, and whether they can foster creativity. Goethe expressed some views on the subject in his famous sonnet ‘Nature and art‘. Examples of such rules might appear to be the laws of logic and axioms of set theory in mathematics, the laws of counterpoint, Schoenberg’…