Tolstoy’s Mathematics in War and Peace

Russian novelist Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, author of War and Peace, had an intense interest in mathematical approaches to the sciences as appears from his proposals to found sociology, history, and the science of war as a mathematical discipline. His book follows the doings and adventures of a group of aristocratic people, and the descriptions of great battles, at the time of Napoleon's invasion in the bleak reaches of great Russia. Closer inspection reveals that one of the main themes of the tale is the insignificance and expendability of the particular heroes--such as Napoleon--in the sweep of history: the events would have unfolded in the same way irrespective of the so-called main figures. Here, Vitanyi examines the book to present Tolstoy's exact phrasing that shows his point of view.