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Print ISBN: 978-1-4704-2023-9
Product Code: MBK/94
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Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4704-2570-8
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Supplemental Materials
Unity and Disunity and Other Mathematical Essays
Share this pagePhilip J. Davis
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.
Philip Davis is known for his work in numerical analysis and
approximation theory, as well as his investigations in the history and
philosophy of mathematics. Currently a Professor Emeritus from the
Division of Applied Mathematics at Brown University, Davis is known
for his books both in the areas of computational mathematics and
approximation theory and for books exploring certain questions in the
philosophy of mathematics and the role of mathematics in society.
Readership
Anyone interested in the history and philosophy of science, in general, and mathematics, in particular.
Reviews & Endorsements
Opening the collection of essays on Unity and disunity by Philip K. Davis to any selection was like...hearing my friend's voice rise and fall, synthesizing disparate ideas in a wondrous conversation between the one and the universe, with me as a permitted eavesdropper...If you want a fun book to read, you will find treasures here in these essays by one who does indeed span the two cultures.
-- Andrew James Simoson, Mathematical Reviews
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Unity and Disunity and Other Mathematical Essays
- Cover Cover11
- Title page iii4
- Contents vii8
- Preface ix10
- The unity and disunity of mathematics 112
- Evidence in mathematics 2132
- Out of what stuff do we make mathematics? 3546
- Computational experiences in the pre-electronic days 4556
- Spengler’s mathematics considered and a Phoenix reborn? 4960
- Can the mathematical/physical notions of entropy be usefully imported into the social sphere? 6576
- The decline, fall, and current resurgence of visual geometry: Mathematics as a multisemiotic enterprise 7990
- The unicorn or mathematical ontology 93104
- Mathematics, politics, and law 101112
- The two culture controversy: A mathematician’s view a half century later 105116
- Four literary men comment on mathematics: Henry James, George Santayana, Paul Valéry, and Isaiah Berlin 123134
- The media and mathematics look at each other 137148
- New winds blowing in applied mathematics 147158
- Back Cover Back Cover1161