Lectures on mathematics Book

In the late summer of 1893, following the Congress of Mathematicians held in Chicago, Felix Klein gave two weeks of lectures on the current state of mathematics. Rather than offering a universal perspective, Klein presented his personal view of the most important topics of the time. It is remarkable how most of the topics continue to be important today. Originally published in 1893 and re-published by the AMS in 1911, this work is once again in print with this new edition. Klein begins by highlighting the works of Clebsch and of Lie. In particular, he discusses Clebsch's work on Abelian functions and compares his approach to the theory with Riemann's more geometrical point of view. Klein devotes two lectures to Sophus Lie, focussing on his contributions to geometry, including sphere geometry and contact geometry. Klein's ability to connect different mathematical disciplines clearly comes through in his lectures on mathematical developments. For instance, he discusses recent progress in non-Euclidean geometry by emphasizing the connections to projective geometry and the role of transformation groups.