Unity and Disunity
Subtitle: and Other Mathematical Essays
By: Philip J. Davis
Publisher: American Mathematical Society
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 149
ISBN-13: 9781470420239
Subjects: Social aspects; Mathematics; Philosophy
Description: This book is a mathematical potpourri. Its material originated in classroom presentations, formal lectures, sections of earlier books, book reviews, or just things written by the author for his own pleasure. Written in a nontechnical fashion, this book expresses the unique vision and attitude of the author towards the role of mathematics in society. It contains observations or incidental remarks on mathematics, its nature, its impacts on education and science and technology, its personalities and philosophies. The book is directed towards the math buffs of the world and, more generally, towards the literate and interested public. --
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Preface; title: The unity and disunity of mathematics; title: Evidence in mathematics; title: Out of what stuff do we make mathematics?; title: Computational experiences in the pre-electronic days; title: Spengler's mathematics considered and a phoenix reborn?; title: Can the mathematical/physical notions of entropy be usefully imported into the social sphere? / The decline, fall, and current resurgence of visual geometry: mathematics as a multisemiotic enterprise; title: The unicorn or mathematical ontology; title: Mathematics, politics, and law; title: The two culture controversy: a mathematician's view a half century later; title: Four literary men comment on mathematics: Henry James, George Santayana, Paul Valéry, and Isaiah Berlin; title: The media and mathematics look at each other; title: New winds blowing in applied mathematics.