A Mathematician's Lament
Lockhart loves mathematics enough to be furious about how school murders it — drilling the notation of a thing while hiding the thing itself. The anger isn't a flaw in the argument; it's the evidence.
view similar →Mathematics
On Proof and Progress in Mathematics
Thurston, a great geometer, describing how mathematics actually advances — through shared understanding, not just formal proof. Unusually generous about the kinds of knowing that resist being written down.
view similar →Mathematics for Human Flourishing
Su's farewell address as president of the MAA, arguing that mathematics answers human longings — for beauty, for play, for justice. Warmer and more humane than the subject usually permits itself to be.
view similar →The Two Cultures of Mathematics
Gowers on the real divide between problem-solvers and theory-builders, written from inside by someone fluent in both. It's a quiet defense of the kind of mathematics that doesn't collect the prizes.
view similar →The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field
Hadamard surveyed working mathematicians on how they actually have ideas, and got answers closer to dreams and hunches than to logic. More anthropology than mathematics, and the better for it.
view similar →A Mathematician's Apology
Hardy's defense of pure mathematics, written as his own powers were fading, candid about ambition, beauty, and growing old. It survives because it's so personal it nearly hurts to read.
view similar →Mathematics and Plausible Reasoning
Pólya on how mathematicians guess before they prove — the analogical, fumbling middle that finished theorems hide. A rare look at the thinking before the thinking gets cleaned up.
view similar →Nothing here yet. Try another search or clear the filter.