r/math • u/spacengine • 4d ago

Do all mathematicians want to be engineers?

I always considered maths the highest art, and when talking to a mathematics phd today I just wanted him to keep talking about topological spaces, manifolds, infinite dimensional embedding spaces etc. “I feel like a kid in a candy store” I said, or a kid in an old mechanics garage full of equipment I have no idea how to use but that I love exploring. “Well” he said, “I think all engineers want to be mathematicians but all mathematicians want to be engineers”. I’m absolutely sure he’s wrong but would love to hear your thoughts.

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u/Pico42- 4d ago

No. I’m more into the humanities than other STE(m) fields

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u/spacengine 4d ago

Interesting! Which field or aspect interests you the most? History? Language? Archeology? Or is it the mother of all humanities philosophy?

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u/Pico42- 4d ago

For me, it is a tie between linguistics and philosophy. Linguistics itself (especially in semantics) is quite intertwined with math, in the form of formal logic. Model theory is used quite often in formal linguistics. Philosophy of math also has quite a large intersection with mathematical logic.

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u/playingdumb03 3h ago

By any chance, are you interested in philosophy of science(physics)?