The Mathematical Experience.

Davis, Philip J. and Reuben (Introduction Gian-Carlo Rota) Hersh -

ISBN 10: 376433018X / ISBN 13: 9783764330187

Published by Boston ; Basel ; Stuttgart : Birkhäuser, 1981

About this Item

Formateinband: Leinen mit Umschlag XIX, 440 S.; 24 cm 1. Aufl.; (Mit zahlreichen Abbildungen); Umschlag etwas gealtert u. am Rücken und den Rändern geblichen; Namenseintrag auf Vorsatz; sonst gut erhalten. Sprache: Englisch Gewicht in Gramm: 1200 [Stichwörter: ].

Seller Inventory # 3411

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Mathematical Experience.
• Publisher: Boston ; Basel ; Stuttgart : Birkhäuser
• Publication Date: 1981
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 376433018X
• ISBN 13: 9783764330187
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 2nd Edition
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Mathematik

About this title

Synopsis

maqthematics has penetrated sociology, psychology, medicine, and linguistics. under the name of cliometry, it has been infiltrating the field of history, much to the shock of old timers. why is this so. what gives mathematics its power? what makes it work?

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.