Mathematics helps us plan for the future and understand how the past might have unfolded differently, said Duke University mathematician Jonathan Mattingly.
The Declaration at 250: Jonathan Mattingly Reflects on Exploring a Better Path Forward, Mathematically
We invited Duke University faculty to reflect on the Declaration through the lens of their own discipline. Each contributor responded to a common prompt: “250 years later, how does your field help us understand, advance or challenge the ideals expressed in the Declaration of Independence?”
By Jonathan Mattingly, Kimberly J. Jenkins Distinguished University Professor of New Technologies in Mathematics
Mathematics empowers the algorithms that drive our technological society. Mathematical models enable drug discovery and modern genetics. Mathematics helps us plan for the future and understand how the past might have unfolded differently. It helps us explore a better path forward and reveals where we have fallen short in our pursuit of equality, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
In my own work, mathematics brought clarity to when electoral districts had been gerrymandered to suppress the people’s democratic voice at the ballot box. It helped the courts recognize when voting districts had been engineered with a political agenda to produce election results dramatically different from those of a typical nonpartisan map. Even more striking, mathematics has shown that partisan voting maps produce many more elections in which the winning party never changes, even when public opinion shifts. Nonpartisan districting maps create many more competitive elections, where candidates must pay attention to less partisan voters. Elections with real consequences are a fundamental feature of a functioning democracy that reflects the will of the people.
While mathematics is often motivated by practical, concrete questions, it is also a quest for beauty and elegance. Beauty lies deep within many mathematical structures. The moment when something once opaque suddenly becomes clear can be joyful — and addictive. For many, mathematics is itself a pursuit of happiness.
About This Series
On July 4, 1776, representatives of thirteen American colonies ratified the Declaration of Independence, announcing both a political separation from Great Britain and a set of aspirations for a new nation. The document was written with two goals: declare independence and justify it. The Declaration begins with a sweeping philosophical statement that has echoed across generations:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Two hundred and fifty years later, those words remain central to American civic life — even as their meaning and possibilities continue to be debated and reinterpreted. The nation’s semiquincentennial offers a moment to think more deeply about the American promise of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’ and how those ideals have traveled across time.
These varied perspectives are a reminder that the Declaration is a living document — one that invites us to carry forward the aspirations articulated in 1776. Resonating far beyond the study of early American history, these ideals are reflected in and challenged by a range of disciplines, each offering us complimentary perspectives on how to pursue life, liberty and happiness today and in the 250 years to come.