Part 1 - The Institute Libraries - Institute for Advanced Study

applied science, and progress in philosophy had in recent years ken
"bounz up with new types 2nd mthods of sheer mthemtical thinking."
In i ts indifference to practical results, rathemstics seemed to Flelcner
to epitmize the function of the Institute, for, he safd, "Nothing is
more likely to defeat itself, nothfng is on the whole less productive
in the long run than imediacy in the reaini of research, reflection and
he
contevlat ion," But /cited with appror-al Partcur, Koch, Lister and
other physiclsta and chemists who "had their feet in both wrlds --
the world of practice and the world of theory." What he wanted was
"rinds that are funbrental in their searching, whztever the spring
that moves them.,."
&thematies cmnded itself on prectical grounds also. It
was peculiarly fitted for present purposes because it would allow a
start ~ n yet d comit the Institute to little at a time %hen we wish to
retain plaeticlty and postpone acts and decisions which w ill bind us."
It required only a few men, a few students, a few r am, books, black-
boards, chalk, paper and p~ncils. Clearly Flexner intended that only
a minor partion of his resources need be devatedlto mathematics.
When he launched into his justiffcation of economics the en-
thusiasm with which he had urged development of the social sciences fn
Universities again &came evfdent. He noted that it was linked to
mathemtics by statistics -- a concern which, it will be seen, was more
than inciCenta1 in his thinkfng. Aside from tbt, it was very different
from mitherratics: "it sems to be everything that =thematics is not,
for it obvfously is of the world of eetlan, rather than of sheer thought-"
There were, he said, ''gshve reasons for this choice,* and contiwd: