Can something just happen to be true?

Chandler Davis

pp. 167-172

in: Bharath Sriraman (ed), Humanizing mathematics and its philosophy, Basel, Birkhäuser, 2017

Abstrakt

I can't help an immediate feeling that 5279 being prime is as accidental as the first snowdrop in my garden appearing on the left side of the walk rather than the right. It came out this way, but it could as well have come out differently. I can't help feeling that 5401 is just as prime-looking as 5279.