Re:Six Math Essentials by Terence Tao
by coderenegade on Wednesday November 11, 2026 @01:22AM
(#50450273)
Gowers' division misses probability, though, which really is its own thing. Similarly, counting is the foundation for the axiomatization of mathematics and probably deserves its own category. They all bleed into one another (analysis uses counting for its formalization, probability uses both counting and analysis), but they can each stand on their own informally (and did, in some cases for centuries).
Does Tao intend that as the 100,000 ft view of all mathematics, a way to categorize (almost) all of it, the roots of the mathematics tree? Are these the essentials or just some valuable ones.
For comparison, Gowers begins a much larger book with, "there is a crude division that undoubtedly works well as a first approximation, namely the division of mathematics into algebra, geometry, and analysis." [0]
There must be other schemes out there?
[0] Timothy Gowers, ed. The Princeton Companion to Mathematics. p.1 (2008)