From Mathematics to Empathy: The Unconventional Journey of a Philanthropic Scholar

Although I was first known as a mathematician, mathematics has never been my primary field of interest.

I’ve found it more instructive for my personal development to study the nature, origin, and purpose of human suffering. The primary goal of this study – if one seeks to grok it – lies in the cultivation of empathy.

My work is based on empathy, not on systematic ethics. One might cite the traditional Christian theology surrounding “Imago Dei,” that is, the beauty and uniqueness of each person. I’ve no ideology to sell to the world, no product to contribute, and no post I desire to obtain.

None of my academic work has been motivated by any pursuit other than erudition for its own sake. Pure mathematics, philosophy, theoretical physics – such pursuits are interesting to me only to the extent that they have no possible application in the world, other than as exercises in logic and argument. Logic and argument are skills worthy of the highest regard, and it is these skills, rather than particular disciplinary perspectives, that I endeavor to impart to the world.

In 2022, London Daily Post attributed “Reasoned Philanthropy” to my endeavors. In their estimation, this utilitarian philosophy was grounded in the ethic of effective altruism. I never knew that I espoused such a philosophy in a systematic way. My life and maxim are grounded in empathy before any systematic ethics. 

The totality of my impact on the global economy is quite miniscule by the standards of many leaders whose lives and fortunes and explored in this magazine. The impact surely doesn’t exceed $50 million, of which I have decided to keep either little or none. Students in the USA, UK, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Colombia, Mexico, India, and South Asia use my free materials, and I have no interest (and no means) to track how widely they are used.

The extensive journalistic attention I have received since the kind and lovely exposition in London Daily Post is quite likely out of proportion to my contributions. I write articles of a technical nature, to be certain: Monographs regarding pure mathematics, peer-reviewed journal articles, and conference proceedings. These contributions have not been of very extensive interest to the media in the USA, Canada, and UK since 2022. Technical documents are rarely of interest outside of academic circles. I’ve transitioned into a peculiarly interdisciplinary author who disseminates his work at no cost to students everywhere.

UK Report indicates that I’m the best-known exponent of dual enrollment (college and high school) in Europe. This is quite funny to me, because I reside in a small Tennessee town where few people even know what I do, except teaching mathematics to people who could not afford it otherwise. While I am an exponent of accelerated high school and have worked in programs all over the world, this work is barely of interest in recent times. I’ve been far more interested in helping disadvantaged students survive rather than helping top students thrive. Certainly, I still have my fair share of top students in ivies and UK universities that I help. It’s not my primary focus.

Recently, my academic work has mostly been associated with Cambridge in some way or another. Whether I am publishing pure mathematics, philosophical articles, or interdisciplinary works, my primary audience has been either Cambridge or GCAS-Dublin. The faculty at these institutes are among the best in the world as accords research production, and I am honored to have met, interacted with, and spoken to these distinguished audiences.

My only professional wish for the current year is to be inducted into the British Statistical Society – not for applied work, as a chartered statistician – but for beautiful interdisciplinary perspectives among curves, elliptic functions, the statistics of elementary particles, and the abstract theory of statistical inference that is grounded in the Fisher-Rao paradigm of information geometry.