Ah, great. The usual bullshit deflection you get from a journalist when even mildly criticising them… #Journalism
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yes, probability was entirely mainstream in mid-century, embraced as an important method by prestigious folks in many places, including in Labourie's France. It was important in both pure and applied work (a distinction that was being actively re-negotiated in this period).
Yes, and Labourie said that most mathematicians looked down on it, just as physicists think of engineering as a lesser academic discipline because it's just "applied physics." Probability is and was of course of great use, but it wasn't for most mathematicians.
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yes, I, a professional historian of 20th century mathematics, am telling you that Labourie's claim is wrong. He has no evidence that "most mathematicians looked down on it" because most did not. The comparison to physics/engineering is also flawed, but that's another story
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Feller book: "[In 1940s] few mathematicians outside the USSR recognized probability as a legitimate branch of math" And Doob "Feller & 20th century probability" seems to make a handful of references to probability and 'respectable established topics' being at odds in 30s & 40s ?
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