What Is Mathematics and What Should It Be?

Doron Zeilberger ()
Additional contact information
Doron Zeilberger: Rutgers University (New Brunswick), Department of Mathematics

A chapter in Humanizing Mathematics and its Philosophy, 2017, pp 139-149 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract In the classic “The Mathematical Experience,” Reuben Hersh and Philip Davis gave a fresh look at mathematics and mathematicians and showed us that notwithstanding Plato and Hilbert, mathematics is a human activity and culture and its pretensions to absolute truth are unfounded. Mathematics is what mathematicians do!. This leitmotif was further expanded in the wonderful “sequel” Descartes’ Dream: The World According to Mathematics, also with Davis, and the more philosophical “What Is Mathematics, Really?”, written by Reuben all by himself. The fact that mathematics is what (human) mathematicians do is further expounded, beautifully, in Loving and Hating Mathematics, written in collaboration with Vera John-Steiner, that, inter alia, debunks G.H. Hardy’s stupid quip that “Mathematics is a young men’s game,” by describing many excellent women mathematicians and many excellent “old” mathematicians.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-61231-7_13

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319612317

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-61231-7_13

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().