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Loading... A Mathematician's Apology#43 - I'd really love to know your opinion on A Mathematician's Apology, and also whether you're a mathematics buff or not! I'd like to hear different views on this book, it's not easy finding people who have read it! A Mathematician's Apology is a great place to start. An easy read. Its short. Highly recommended.
I suggest Flatland too.
And it you like to read about mathematicians, I suggest Fermat's Enigma. Roseliot, I've just found you but have already added A Mathematician's Apology to my bookmooch wishlist. thanks! And your comments are great.
10 - A Mathematician's Apology, G.H. Hardy
This almost depressed me, it kind of gave the message that there is no point in studying anything but mathematics, and that people who cannot appreciate it are lesser beings. But he writes so beautifully and truthfully that you just think he's ... ... physics (etc. — xkcd) or applied math (whose boundary has of course shifted since A Mathematician's Apology was written at the start of the Second World War or read by us during Vietnam), it's practical predictive power that matters, isn't it? If logic ... ... Genius Ramanujan
A Beautiful Mind
The Man Who Loved Only Numbers
Pop History -
Chaos
Lay Talk -
A Mathematician's Apology
Begin (nearly) at the beginning: Plato. Read the books written about the death of Socrates: Apology, Euthyphro, Crito, Phaedo. Then Meno and select a couple more of the shorter dialogs, perhaps. Eventually you'll want to take on Republic.
You could then take on Aristotle, and ... ... of what I like to read, this is what I picked up at the library today:
2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
A Mathematician's Apology by G.H. Hardy
The Complete Illustrated Stories, Plays, and Poems of Oscar Wilde
Selected Philosophical Writings by Rene Descartes
The C ... ... I say, the question becomes almost Escheresque in it's complexity.
There's a joke that was found in G. H. Hardy's (he of A Mathematician's Apology notebooks. Hardy mentioned that this joke was his favorite. It's a rather dry joke, but I love it:
Teacher: ( at front of classroom) Suppose ... Thanks for the Ulam recommendation... that looks like an amazing book. If you like math biographies, I can highly recommend A Mathematician's Apology by G.H. Hardy. It's very sad but still a quite amazing look at the mathematical mind.
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