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Unity and Disunity and Other Mathematical Essays

Philip J. Davis Brown University, Providence, RI
Available Formats:
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4704-2023-9
Product Code: MBK/94
List Price: $42.00 MAA Member Price:$37.80
AMS Member Price: $33.60 Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4704-2570-8 Product Code: MBK/94.E List Price:$39.00
MAA Member Price: $35.10 AMS Member Price:$31.20
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List Price: $63.00 MAA Member Price:$56.70
AMS Member Price: $50.40 Click above image for expanded view Unity and Disunity and Other Mathematical Essays Philip J. Davis Brown University, Providence, RI Available Formats:  Softcover ISBN: 978-1-4704-2023-9 Product Code: MBK/94  List Price:$42.00 MAA Member Price: $37.80 AMS Member Price:$33.60
 Electronic ISBN: 978-1-4704-2570-8 Product Code: MBK/94.E
 List Price: $39.00 MAA Member Price:$35.10 AMS Member Price: $31.20 Bundle Print and Electronic Formats and Save! This product is available for purchase as a bundle. Purchasing as a bundle enables you to save on the electronic version.  List Price:$63.00 MAA Member Price: $56.70 AMS Member Price:$50.40
• Book Details

2015; 149 pp
MSC: Primary 00;

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.

Anyone interested in the history and philosophy of science, in general, and mathematics, in particular.

• Chapters
• The unity and disunity of mathematics
• Evidence in mathematics
• Out of what stuff do we make mathematics?
• Computational experiences in the pre-electronic days
• Spengler’s mathematics considered and a Phoenix reborn?
• Can the mathematical/physical notions of entropy be usefully imported into the social sphere?
• The decline, fall, and current resurgence of visual geometry: Mathematics as a multisemiotic enterprise
• The unicorn or mathematical ontology
• Mathematics, politics, and law
• The two culture controversy: A mathematician’s view a half century later
• Four literary men comment on mathematics: Henry James, George Santayana, Paul Valéry, and Isaiah Berlin
• The media and mathematics look at each other
• New winds blowing in applied mathematics

• Reviews

• 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
• Requests

Review Copy – for reviewers who would like to review an AMS book
Permission – for use of book, eBook, or Journal content
Accessibility – to request an alternate format of an AMS title
2015; 149 pp
MSC: Primary 00;

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.

Anyone interested in the history and philosophy of science, in general, and mathematics, in particular.

• Chapters
• The unity and disunity of mathematics
• Evidence in mathematics
• Out of what stuff do we make mathematics?
• Computational experiences in the pre-electronic days
• Spengler’s mathematics considered and a Phoenix reborn?
• Can the mathematical/physical notions of entropy be usefully imported into the social sphere?
• The decline, fall, and current resurgence of visual geometry: Mathematics as a multisemiotic enterprise
• The unicorn or mathematical ontology
• Mathematics, politics, and law
• The two culture controversy: A mathematician’s view a half century later
• Four literary men comment on mathematics: Henry James, George Santayana, Paul Valéry, and Isaiah Berlin
• The media and mathematics look at each other
• New winds blowing in applied mathematics
• 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
Review Copy – for reviewers who would like to review an AMS book
Permission – for use of book, eBook, or Journal content
Accessibility – to request an alternate format of an AMS title
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