Talk:E. W. Hobson
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Concerning
It included material on general topology and Fourier series ... and included mistakes that were picked up later (for example by R. L. Moore),
I should like to suggest that the latter part of this statement be appropriately documented, or removed altogether; as it stands, it has all the appearance of a libellous statement, and, further, a general reader has no way of verifying this remark which is unfair to Hobson at the very least. To clarify this, firstly, Hobson's book, published in 1907, deals with what one might call front-line mathematics of its time and insofar as I can judge, he is very careful in pointing out which issues are accepted and which controversial; it is inappropriate to allege, hundred years since, that the book contained errors; secondly, the book in question knows later editions: in 1921 and 1926, the second edition of this book was published as Volume I and Volume II respectively (the first edition of 1907 was in one volume); the third edition of Volume I, published in 1927, is Revised throughout and enlarged (Hobson died in 1933). Cambridge University Press reprinted both volumes in 1950 (Dover followed in 1957, at least insofar as Volume II is concerned). It is relevant to mention that the first edition of the book counts 772 pages, whereas Volume I, 3rd edition, counts 732 pages and Volume II, 2nd edition, counts 783 pages.
Incidentally, insofar as general topology is concerned, Hobson solely deals with the Heine-Borel theorem; there is not much topology, as we understand the term today, in the book (one will search in vain in the book for the word topology).
--BF 13:50, 7 December 2006 (UTC)
