The arithmetics of Pierre Fermat in the context of the Mersenne correspondence: A microsocial approach (Q735087)

The article essentially contributes to the handsome outcome of local studies performed by Pierre (de) Fermat. The author mainly concentrates on the correspondence of Fermat with Mersenne. Some 120 letters are available. As they have not been conserved with respect to any classification so far, C. Goldstein should be congratulated for having set up a systematic organization of the subject. Due to quasi-absence of proofs, Fermat' s results are often minimized to mere writing difficulties. Yet, for S. Mahoney on Fermat: ``Fully general rigorous proofs were not his forte''. But André Weil claims: ``Fermat's weakness lay in the extreme difficulty he always experienced at writing up discoveries. But no man can be a good mathematician, let alone a great one, if he cannot make the difference between a theorem and a conjecture, between intuition and proof.' ' Goldstein wonders if one is enabled to attribute a human or a scientific identity to Fermat. The latter seemed to be aware of his ability to situate any interlocutor providing him a stuff of new problems that Fermat could not solve by himself. As a conclusion C. Goldstein acknowledges seeing Fermat located in a particular situation of a social configuration of which he understands the working tools as well as his own risks.