On the Importance of Useless Mathematics

António Machiavelo ()
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António Machiavelo: Centro de Matemática da Universidade do Porto

A chapter in Raising Public Awareness of Mathematics, 2012, pp 397-408 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract It is very difficult to convey the purpose of large and important pieces of mathematics to the general public. Even college students of mathematics frequently ask, in an exasperating way: “What is this useful for?” In this short essay it is argued that in order to appropriately answer this question, one must first dispel some common-sense notions that just happen to be wrong. Fundamentally, one has to confront, head on, the question of what mathematics really is and exactly what things it deals with, which can only be satisfactorily understood within an evolutionary perspective.

Keywords: Natural Selection; Mathematical Object; Nobel Laureate; Wrong Idea; Mathematical Community (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-642-25710-0_28

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-25710-0_28

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