Product Description

Winner of the 1984 American Book Award! "…a perfectly marvelous book about the Queen of Sciences, from which one will get a real feeling for what mathematicians do and who they are. The exposition is clear and full of wit and humor..." - The New Yorker (1984 American Book Award Edition) Mathematics has been a human activity for thousands of years. Yet only a few people from the vast population of users are professional mathematicians, who create, teach, foster, and apply it in a variety of situations. The authors of this book believe that it should be possible for these professional mathematicians to explain to non-professionals what they do, what they say they are doing, and why the world should support them at it. They also believe that mathematics should be taught to non-mathematics majors in such a way as to instill an appreciation of the power and beauty of mathematics. Many people from around the world have told the authors that they have done precisely that with the first edition and they have encouraged publication of this revised edition complete with exercises for helping students to demonstrate their understanding. This edition of the book should find a new generation of general readers and students who would like to know what mathematics is all about. It will prove invaluable as a course text for a general mathematics appreciation course, one in which the student can combine an appreciation for the esthetics with some satisfying and revealing applications. The text is ideal for 1) a GE course for Liberal Arts students 2) a Capstone course for perspective teachers 3) a writing course for mathematics teachers. The Companion Guide to the Mathematical Experience 120 pp. * Softcover * $14.95 * ISBN 0-8176-3849-0

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #562031 in Books
• Published on: 1995-10-18
• Format: Student Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 487 pages

Customer Reviews

Should be read by every maths student (for fun).
Back in the early 90's when I was an almost-penniless mathematics student I was standing in front of a bookshelf in my local bookstore and had to choose between this and Gödel, Escher, Bach. I chose this book and I still don't regret it. [I have also subsequently bought GEB :-)]
Driven by their obvious love of the subject, the authors do a credible job of tackling just what it is about mathematics that makes mathematicians love it so much, often to the bafflement of the rest of the world. A particular personal favourite is the series of four conversations between an "ideal mathematician" and, respectively, a University Public Information Officer, a philosophy student, a positive philosopher and a sceptical classicist.
I would recommend this book to students of mathematics at any level beyond the elementary, especially those with an interest in the foundations of their subject. The authors do however acknowledge that some parts of the book will seem alien to the layman.

A Must Read for the Curious
Around my early to mid teens, finding the mathematics I was being taught easy but also puzzling I started to have philosophical questions that were just not properly addressed. I later hoped (naively I now know) my Science/Engineering degree would answer those questions. It didn't. I had wanted to dig deeper into what mathematics is but instead was taught increasingly obscure and complex "results" that were useful to my discipline. Had I known it at the time this book would have answered my questions (often answering them with more questions, true). It appears to give an excellent framework to the consideration of any uneasiness you might feel with mathematics especially if you find/found school levels maths easy.

If after reading this you still feel uneasy then you know you need to proceed further into philosophy.

A great book.