The Pragmatics of Passion: A Sociology of Attachment to Mathematics

Abstract

This paper addresses the question of the intertwining of practice and passion in scientific work, considering passion as a collective attachment to the subjects and objects of knowledge in an epistemic community. The paper draws on a research program on Renato Caccioppoli (1904—59), the famous Italian mathematician, and the group of mathematicians he used to work with, showing the use of sociology of attachment in the description of the link between practice, passion and knowledge. The research followed a qualitative methodology and focused on interviews and documents (letters, books, movies analysis, newspapers' articles) on historical and contemporary accounts of schools of mathematics and epistemic communities. This paper unfolds in three parts: a brief focus on the theoretical framework of the research; the analyses of the practices for mobilizing passion used by the mathematicians emerging from the research program; the discussion of the relevance of our first findings and the indication of future directions for the research.