Euler

The famous French philosopher and atheist had a rather contemptuous attitude towards mathematics, which, in his opinion, added nothing to experience and only served to interpose a veil between men and Nature. What irritated Catherine, however, were more than his denigrating ideas about mathematics, his clumsy attempts to insinuate doubts into the religious beliefs of the courtiers. Euler was then invited by the empress to intervene and muzzle this frivolous and insufferable atheist. The equally famous Swiss mathematician, out of gratitude for Catherine’s patronage, could not hold back and, in a solemn tone before the assembled court, turned to Diderot, saying gravely: “Sir, (a+b^n)/n=x, therefore God exists; answer!”. It is said that, faced with such a furious mathematical assault (which to Diderot’s ears sounded like a sensible one, since the philosopher did not understand much about mathematics), Diderot retreated. Disarmed by his incompetence, unable to refute the proof, and humiliated by the laughter that accompanied his embarrassed silence, Diderot left the court the next day. The anecdote, told by the English mathematician Augustus De Morgan in 1872, was most likely invented by the latter to foment rivalry between philosophers and mathematicians. It has certainly been embellished and perfectly reflects the fact that many mathematicians enjoy humiliating philosophers. On the other hand, what interested Catherine the Great was not so much a mathematical demonstration of the existence of God as Euler’s expertise in the fields of ballistics, hydraulics, and shipbuilding. Fields in which Euler was a star of the first magnitude.