
What is Mathematics, Really?
Reuben Hersh(Author)
Jonathan Cape (Publisher)
Published on 4. September 1997
Book
Hardback
384 pages
978-0-224-04417-2 (ISBN)
Description
This book tackles the important questions which have engaged mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers for thousands of years and which are still being asked today. It does so with clarity and with scholarship born of first-hand experience; a knowledge both of the ideas and of the people who have pronounced on them. The main purpose of the book is to confront philosophical problems: In what sense do mathematical objects exist? How can we have knowledge of them? Why do mathematicians think mathematical entities exist for ever, independent of human action and knowledge? The book proposes an unconventional answer: mathematics has existence or reality only as part of human culture. Despite its seeming timelessness and infallibility, it is a social, cultural, historic phenomenon.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 243 mm
Width: 162 mm
Weight
739 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-224-04417-2 (9780224044172)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Reuben Hersh is Professor Emeritus at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. He is a winner of the Chauvenet Prize and the Ford Prize. He is the author (with Philip J. Davis) of The Mathematical Experience and Descarte's Dream. The Mathematical Experience won a National Book Award.