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Flaws and Idiosyncrasies in Mathematicians: Food for the Classroom

This paper raises an ethical question: should aspects of a mathematician’s personality, political beliefs, physical handicaps, and the ironies surrounding their life be mentioned parenthetically or otherwise in our lessons? What about the political and social norms of the times in the countries in which they lived? There are no hard and fast guidelines on this other than to use good taste; but what is in good taste to one is often in bad taste to another. At the very least this paper presents tidbits of information and innuendo about mathematicians the reader might not know. But hopefully this paper will help the reader develop a personal stance on this issue. 0. Setting the Stage: Ethical Dilemmas Ethical dilemmas are those gut-wrenching situations that are inescapable in life. They come in different degrees of magnitude and severity–but what they have in common is that they push us to the core of our personal moral beliefs. Each of us can easily think of such situations and decisions we have made in this realm. Some decisions we have made with the authority of certainty; others that to this day we don’t know if we acted correctly; and still others that we feel uncomfortable in discussing. But making ethical decisions is a part of life–and sometimes they are not easy to make. Within the university world the arena of problems and situations for which ethical decisions have to be made seems to be unlimited in scope and number. Animal research, stem cell research, genetic engineering, affirmative action admission policies are of one magnitude; accepting grants from individuals and foundations with tainted histories, grants with strings attached, researching sensitive topics such as terrorist profiling, ethnic profiling, etc., are of another magnitude. Universities often have ethics committees to oversee such dilemmas. Ethical dilemmas exist on large, small, and personal scales–even in the mathematics classroom.