Exploring the toolkit of Jean Bourgain

It has been shown that a functional interpretation of proofs in mathematical analysis can be given by the product of selection functions, a mode of recursion that has an intuitive reading in terms of the computation of optimal strategies in sequential games. We argue that this result has genuine practical value by interpreting some well-known theorems of mathematics and demonstrating that the product gives these theorems a natural computational interpretation that can be clea...

Formal logic has often been seen as uniquely placed to analyze mathematical argumentation. While formal logic is certainly necessary for a complete understanding of mathematical practice, it is not sufficient. Important aspects of mathematical reasoning closely resemble patterns of reasoning in nonmathematical domains. Hence the tools developed to understand informal reasoning, collectively known as argumentation theory, are also applicable to much mathematical argumentation....

This paper was written in 2015, and published in the Journal of Humanistic Mathematics. This paper announces the first issue (2015) of Enchiridion: Mathematics User's Guides, a project to produce peer-reviewed User's Guides as companions to published papers. These User's Guides are meant to explain the key insights and organizing principles in their companion papers, the metaphors and imagery used by the authors, the story of the development of the companion papers, and a col...

We give a general overview of the influence of William Thurston on the French mathematical school and we show how some of the major problems he solved are rooted in the French mathematical tradition. At the same time, we survey some of Thurston's major results and their impact. The final version of this paper will appear in the Surveys of the European Mathematical Society.

Talk at the International Conference ``G\'eom\'etrie au vingti\`eme ci\`ecle: 1930--2000'', Paris, Institut Henri Poincar\'e, Sept. 2001. The title is a homage to Hans Rademacher and Otto Toeplitz whose book fascinated the author many years ago.

Remarks on mathematical proof and the practice of mathematics.

33rd issue of a bulletin dedicated to research on selective properties in mathematics.

This paper collects some problems that I have encountered during the years, have puzzled me and which, to the best of my knowledge, are still open. Most of them are well-known and have been first stated by other authors. In this sad season of lockdown, I modestly try to contribute to scientific interaction at a distance. Therefore all comments and exchange of information are most welcome.

We give a proof of the Bourgain-Milman theorem using complex methods. The proof is inspired by Kuperberg's, but considerably shorter.

The theme of the influence of Bourbaki's ideas and methodologies on disciplines that transcend the mathematical field has been frequently addressed and, in particular, the reflection on the relationship between Bourbaki and Oulipo has animated a passionate debate within literary criticism. The purpose of this contribution is to investigate the relations between Le Lionnais, Queneau and Roubaud - and more generally Oulipo - and Bourbaki. Through a comparative examination betwe...