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Frédéric Jaëck
Philosophy of Mathematics
History - Logic - AI
Gilles Gaston Granger Center, UMR 7304
Aix-Marseille University

Highlights

Research themes

My current research focuses on the conditions that make the progression of mathematics possible and seeks to account for the nature of this progression. The questions I work on aim to take into account recent developments in mathematics as well as new forms of artificial thought: What does it mean to “do mathematics”? How is one’s power of thought exercised in mathematics? Are there artificial forms of mathematical thinking? My approach stands at the crossroads between a tradition of critical philosophy and a descriptive philosophy suited to 19th–21st century mathematics.

Scientific responsibilities

  • Co-founder and member of the editorial board of the journal Annals of Mathematics and Philosophy (M×Φ)
  • Elected member of the Société des Amis de Jean Cavaillès
  • Elected member of the Board and Deputy Secretary of the National Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology

Recent Invited Fellowships

  • Invited stay at the Center for Philosophy of Science – University of Pittsburgh (2025)
  • Invited stay at the Villino Volterra (2024)
  • Invited stay at IMéRA – Institute for Advanced Study (2023)
  • Invited stays at the Mittag-Leffler Institute (2017, 2018)

Conferences & Seminars (organizer)

Other activities

  • Head of the DAFIP–GARLABAN project on the role of expressive capacities in children’s success at primary school (philosophy–sociolinguistics)
  • Member of the scientific committee of the 2024 French Conference on Philosophy of Mathematics (PhilMath)
  • “Simha Arom” project with Pascal Terrien (AMU), musicology software (2019–2023)
  • “La dessinatrice” project: software for cutting and manipulating polygons. With Maxime Berger, Clément Cartier-Catgolin, Edouard Thomas, Bernard Lemaire (2017–2021)
  • Member of the jury for the external mathematics agrégation (2018–2021)
  • CNRS correspondent for the “Year of Mathematics 2020” at the DMA. Organization of events, lectures, and workshops.
  • Evening in tribute to ethnomusicologist Simha Arom (January 16, 2019).
  • Mathematics outreach: editorial manager of CultureMath. Experimentation with author groups in France with IREM/IRES and ENS.
  • Nuit Sciences et Lettres 2019 at ENS: representative of the DMA on the “Nuits des origines” steering committee. Moderator of the round table “Kolam: an ephemeral women’s art of South India” (with J-P. Allouche, M. Chemillier, O. Garcia-Parada, C. Silva)
  • Year of Mathematics 2019: CNRS correspondent for activities aimed at secondary school teachers. Program to be published online.
  • Member of the jury for the Tangente Prize for Best Article (popular mathematics) [2016–2019]

Invited talks (selected)

  • 'SPACE' DAY, CGGG
    May 7, 2025, Organized by: P. Cantù, ANR-23-CE54-0012 " Axiomatic Definitions "
    Talk : "Spaces and structures: why, how, and other philosophical questions"
  • CENTER FOR PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
    February 28, 2025, Organized by: E. Machery, Center for Philosophy of Science, Pittsburgh, USA
    Talk : "What is called 'thinking' in mathematics?"
  • MAURICE FRÉCHET - MAURICE HALBWACHS. AN UNLIKELY ENCOUNTER
    October 7, 2024, Organized by: E. Didier, A. Lhuissier, L. Mazliak
    Talk : “Maurice Fréchet: ‘an unusual power of abstraction’”
  • WHAT IS THE VOID FULL OF? 18th “Physics and Fundamental Questions” Meetings (PIF)
    November 18, 2023. Organized by the BNF
    Talk : “The empty set is not nothing”
  • PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICAL PRACTICE at the Collège de France
    November 6, 2023. Organized by : Thimothy Gowers
    Talk : “What does it mean to ‘think’ in mathematics?”
  • MAURICE FRÉCHET: MATHEMATICS, THE ABSTRACT AND THE CONCRETE
    October 9, 2023. Organized by Frédéric Jaëck and Laurent Mazliak. (In collaboration with Pascal Bertin)
    Talk : "Taming infinity: Fréchet and compactness"
  • PHILMATHMED 2023: "STRUCTURES, AND AFTER?"
    May 25–26, 2023, in Nice. Organized by : Francesca Biagioli, Paola Cantu, Thomas Hausberger, Sébastien Maronne, Frédéric Patras
    Talk : “Poetic contamination of structure”
  • CONFERENCE "GROTHENDIECK, A MULTIFARIOUS GIANT: MATHEMATICS, LOGIC AND PHILOSOPHY"
    May 24–28, 2022, Chapman University, Orange, CA; Organized by Peter Jipsen, Alexander Kurz, Andrew Mosher, Marco Panza, Ahmed Sebbar, Daniele Struppa, Colin Mclarty, Jean-Pierre Marquis, Jean-Jacques Szczeciniarz.
    Talk : “A philosophy in the shade of Grothendieck's mathematics”
  • COLLOQUIUM "ALBERT LAUTMAN: PHILOSOPHY, MATHEMATICS, RESISTANCE"
    École normale supérieure, Paris, October 27–29, 2021; Organized by Jean-Jacques Szczeciniarz, Christophe Eckes, Baptiste Mélès, Bertrand Rémy.
    Talk : “Reconciling heterogeneous couples: a Kantian program in Lautman.”
  • AIX–NANTES MEETING IN PHILOSOPHY AND HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS
    Online, February 22, 2021; Organized by Paula Cantu and Scott Walter.
    Talk : “Can philosophy think mathematical progress?”
  • PHILMATH SEMINAR AT IHPST
    IHPST, March 25, 2019.
    Talk : “Unity and progress of mathematics: selected scenes from functional analysis”
  • CONFERENCE "MATHEMATICAL COMMUNITIES IN POSTWAR RECONSTRUCTION (1918–1928)"
    CIRM, Marseille (France), November 12–16, 2018; Organized by T. Archibald, A. Guerraggio, L. Mazliak, R. Tazzioli.
    Talk : “A look at Banach's work through his publications in the two journals: Fundamenta Mathematicae and Studia Mathematica.”
  • COLLOQUIUM IN HONOR OF HOURYA BENIS SINACEUR
    École normale supérieure, Paris, June 15–17, 2017; Organized by K. Chemla, E. Haffner, G. Heinzmann, M. Panza, D. Rabouin.
    Talk : “Irreducibility of mathematics to the algebraic form of thought: some examples”
  • HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS SEMINAR, PAINLEVÉ LABORATORY
    Lille, December 15, 2016; Organized by R. Tazzioli.
    Talk : “The use of functionals in a general approach by Stefan Banach”
  • CONFERENCES IN HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF MATHEMATICS
    Toulouse, April 1, 2016; Coordinated by S. Maronne.
    Talk : “The notion of function in Volterra’s general approach to functional analysis”
  • HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS SEMINAR, INSTITUT HENRI POINCARÉ
    IHP, January 15, 2016; Session prepared by R. Tazzioli.
    Talk : “Modernity and generality: the case of functional analysis”
  • THE POLISH SCHOOL OF MATHEMATICIANS BETWEEN THE WARS
    Lens, November 21–22, 2014; Organized by the Institute of Polish Culture and the Mathematics Laboratory of Lens.
    Talk : “Stephan Banach’s spaces and linear operations”
  • PHILMATH SEMINAR (SPHERE CNRS).
    March 9, 2014; Session prepared by E. Haffner.
    Talk : “Some uses of the word ‘operation’ in functional analysis”
    December 16, 2013; Session prepared by R. Kebaili.
    Talk : “The development of Symbolic Algebra in Duncan Gregory”
    November 19, 2012; Session prepared by K. Chemla.
    Talk : “From operations to operators in functional analysis”
  • HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS SEMINAR, PAINLEVÉ LABORATORY.
    Lille, November 22, 2012; Organized by R. Tazzioli.
    Talk : “Functionals in 20th-century functional analysis and a double movement toward the general”
  • FRENCH–ITALIAN MEETINGS IN HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS.
    Universities of Lille and Lens, November 18–19, 2013; Organized by F. Brechenmacher, G. Jouve, L. Mazliak, R. Tazzioli.
    Talk : “The song of lines”
  • EMS/DMF JOINT MATHEMATICAL WEEKEND.
    Aarhus University, April 5–7, 2013.
    Talk : “Operations in functional analysis”
  • OPERATOR ALGEBRAS AND RANDOM MATRICES AT AMBLESIDE
    Ambleside, UK, July 23–30, 2004; Organized by Steven Power and Gordon Blower.
    Talk : “Hyperreflexivity of Some Semigroupoid Algebras”
  • ST JOHN’S COLLEGE SEMINAR OXFORD
    Oxford, March 6, 2003.
    Talk : “Semigroupoid algebras”
  • THIRD CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN NETWORK “ANALYSIS AND OPERATOR THEORY”
    Tenerife, Spain, May 21–26, 2003; Organized by J. Bruna, J. Esterle, F. Gonzalez, R. Gonzalez.
    Talk : “Failure of Bercovici's factorization result in \(L^1(\mathbb T^N)\)”
  • YOUNG ANALYSTS MEETING OF THE SOUTHEAST (YAMS).
    Greenville University, 2001; Organized by Wing Suet Li and Hari Bercovici.
    Talk : “N-tuples in the class \(\mathbb A\) and factorization properties”
  • OPERATOR THEORY DAYS.
    Université Lille I, March 20–22, 1997; Organized by M. Mbekhta.
    Talk : “Localization and factorization in \(L^1(\mathbb T^N,\mu)\) where \(\mu\) is a Henkin measure”
  • THE 16TH CONFERENCE ON OPERATOR THEORY.
    Timișoara, Romania, July 2–10, 1996.
    Talk : “New sufficient conditions to belong to the classes \((\mathbb A_{m,n})\)”
  • CONFERENCE ON OPERATOR THEORY.
    Luminy, October 30–November 3, 1995; Organized by B. Chevreau, J.P. Labrousse, M. Mbekhta, N. Nikolskii.
    Talk : “On the classes \(\mathbb A_{m,n}\)”

Current and past Affiliations

Centre Gilles Gaston Granger
(UMR 7304)
Aix-Marseille Université

——
Associate Professor + HDR
[Since 2020]

Center for Philosophy of Science

——
Pittsburgh
[January–April 2025]

IMéRA – Institute for Advanced Studies

——
Interdisciplinary Explorations
[2022–2023 (sem. 1)]

SPHère – Sciences, Philosophy, History

——
CNRS UMR 7219
[Associate Member since 2010]

École normale supérieure, Paris

——
DMA
Analysis Group
[2016–2020]

Trinity College Dublin (Ireland)

——
School of Mathematics
[Lecturer 2007–2008]

Lancaster University (England)

——
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
[Post-doc 2002–2003]

Conservatoire national des arts et métiers

——
CNAM Aquitaine
[2005–2016]

Université Bordeaux I

——
LABAG
[Associate Member 1993–2015]

Academic Background

  • Habilitation to Supervise Research (HDR)

    “Philosophy of Mathematical Thought”

    Supervisor: T. Gowers ; Committee: J.-P. Marquis, J.-M. Salanskis, F. Zalamea, M. van Atten, P. Cantù, V. Giardino, F. Patras ; Collège de France and ENS Ulm, 2024.
  • PhD in Philosophy and History of Mathematics

    “Some aspects of the development of functional analysis up to Banach. The role of operations in a general approach.”

    Supervisor: K. Chemla ; Committee: J.-J. Szczeciniarz (chair), H. Benis-Sinaceur, T. Coulhon, R. Tazzioli, J. Gray ; Université Paris-Diderot, 2015.

  • PhD in Pure Mathematics

    “Theory of dual algebras and commutative pairs of contractions.”

    Supervisor: B. Chevreau ; Committee: J. Esterle (chair), J. Eschmeier, S. Kisliakov, N. Nikolskii, F. Vasilescu ; Université de Bordeaux 1, 1997.

  • DEA (MSc equivalent) in Pure Mathematics

    “Cyclic vectors for Toeplitz operators”

    Supervisor: N. Nikolskii, Université de Bordeaux 1, 1992.

  • Mathematics Agrégation, 1992

Frédéric Jaëck

frederic.jaeck@univ-amu.fr

Tel: 07 68 06 98 35

Updated: 2025
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