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Comment by btilly | Hacker News Reader

The best description of math that I have ever encountered of what math is is the book The Mathematical Experience by Davis and Hersch.

Don't be scared by the fact that it is a book. It is very accessible since it is divided into little articles on different areas of math. A lay person can read it and gain a sense of what this math stuff is and how varied it is. A PhD can read the same material and will appreciate it on a much deeper level.

Let me give one data point. I know more mathematicians who became interested in math because of reading The Mathematical Experience than any other book. Seriously.

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Hm. I've not read it, but I have read a rather scathing review of it by Martin Gardner (whose opinions I usually respect). disagreeing with it on fundamental philosophical grounds.

That's interesting. Gardner describes himself as a journalist interested in math and science, but specifically not a mathematician. It's interesting that he disagrees with two mathematicians on the question of what math is.

I find MG fantastic, but sometimes his articles and books lack depth. He is a wonderful writer and populariser, but I wonder whose side I would take if this were a real debate.

But it isn't. There's room for both opinions. I've never met Gardner and am now unlikely to do so, but I know a few people who know him fairly well. I'll ask their opinion when I get the chance.

Do you have a reference for that review?

Do you have a reference for that review?

http://www.cs.nyu.edu/pipermail/fom/1997-November/000128.htm...

Cool - thanks.

Here is the primary source I found of Gardner's review. I suggest anyone interested read it themselves, as the review itself is a well-written reflection on Gardner's own mathematical philosophy.

http://books.google.com/books?id=oXEaTdstD7gC&pg=PA280&#...

I did not find it scathing, but rather of mixed opinions. He criticizes the sort of mathematical "cultural relativism" that the authors sometimes suggest, but he also praises the book's treatment of specific topics as accessible and inspiring.

Thanks for noting this review, because this book is one I like and often recommend to less-technical people, and I had never encountered it before.

I will have to look at that. I personally was a huge fan of "A Mathematician's Apology" by Hardy.

My father-in-law was a fan of that one as well. I was not as taken with Hardy's "my life is useless" argument, and I find it a delicious irony that advances in cryptography have made Number Theory applied.

Yes, I too found that ironic. But it remains a beautiful and well written insight into the mind of a great mathematician and into why he went into mathematics himself.

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