The Mathematical Experience: A National Book Award Winner - Softcover

Davis, Phillip J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0395929687 ISBN 13: 9780395929681

Publisher: Harper Paperbacks, 1999

Synopsis

This is the classic introduction for the educated lay reader to the richly diverse world of mathematics: its history, philosophy, principles, and personalities.

About this title

Review:

We tend to think of mathematics as uniquely rigorous, and of mathematicians as supremely smart. In his introduction to The Mathematical Experience, Gian-Carlo Rota notes that instead, "a mathematician's work is mostly a tangle of guesswork, analogy, wishful thinking and frustration, and proof ... is more often than not a way of making sure that our minds are not playing tricks." Philip Davis and Reuben Hersh discuss everything from the nature of proof to the Euclid myth, and mathematical aesthetics to non-Cantorian set theory. They make a convincing case for the idea that mathematics is not about eternal reality, but comprises "true facts about imaginary objects" and belongs among the human sciences.

About the Author:

Phillip J. Davis is professor of applied mathematics at Brown University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0395929687
• ISBN 13: 9780395929681
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464