The Mathematical Life of Fan Chung

What do pure mathematicians do, and why do they do it? Looking beyond the conventional answers, this book offers an eclectic panorama of the lives and values and hopes and fears of mathematicians in the twenty-first century, assembling material from a startlingly diverse assortment of scholarly, journalistic, and pop culture sources. Drawing on the author's personal experiences as well as the thoughts and opinions of mathematicians from Archimedes and Omar Khayyám to such contemporary giants as Alexander Grothendieck and Robert Langlands, the book reveals the charisma and romance of mathematics as well as its darker side. In this portrait of mathematics as a community united around a set of common intellectual, ethical, and existential challenges, the book touches on a wide variety of questions, such as: Are mathematicians to blame for the 2008 financial crisis? How can we talk about the ideas we were born too soon to understand? And how should you react if you are asked to explain number theory at a dinner party? The book takes readers on an unapologetic guided tour of the mathematical life, from the philosophy and sociology of mathematics to its reflections in film and popular music, with detours through the mathematical and mystical traditions of Russia, India, medieval Islam, the Bronx, and beyond.

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Mathematical life (Khadjiev Djavvat)

Uzbek Mathematical Journal ◽

10.29229/uzmj.2018-2-17 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2018 (2) ◽

pp. 167-172

Author(s):

Dj. Khadjiev

Keyword(s):

Mathematical Life

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Bringing Mathematical Life to Favorite Books

Mathematics Teacher ◽

10.5951/mtlt.2020.0218 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 114 (2) ◽

pp. 103-109

Author(s):

Kimberly Morrow-Leong ◽

Sara Delano Moore ◽

Linda M. Gojak

Keyword(s):

Picture Books ◽

Mathematical Life

Reading mathematics picture books to children increases interest in mathematics, strengthens vocabulary, and can improve achievement.

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Mathematical Metaphors Gone Wild

Making and Breaking Mathematical Sense ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691171715.003.0007 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Roi Wagner

Keyword(s):

Early Modern ◽

Case Studies ◽

Cognitive Theory ◽

Early Modernity ◽

First Case ◽

Mathematical Life ◽

George Lakoff

This chapter examines two case studies that illustrate the limitations of the cognitive theory of mathematical metaphor in accounting for the formation of actual historical mathematical life worlds. The first case study deals with four medieval and early modern examples of relating algebra to geometry. These examples show that when two mathematical domains are linked, what passes between them cannot be reduced to “inferences,” as assumed by the theory of mathematical metaphor. The second case study reviews notions of infinity since early modernity and demonstrates that these notions are far too variegated and complex to be subsumed under a single metaphor—namely, George Lakoff and Rafael Núñez's basic metaphor of infinity, which tries to read all mathematical infinities as metaphorically projecting final destinations on indefinite sequences.

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Introduction

Making and Breaking Mathematical Sense ◽

10.23943/princeton/9780691171715.003.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Roi Wagner

Keyword(s):

Option Pricing ◽

Cognitive Theory ◽

Philosophy Of Mathematics ◽

Mathematical Cognition ◽

Point Of View ◽

Current State ◽

Mathematical Life ◽

Black Scholes ◽

Epistemological Position ◽

Mathematical Interpretation

This book examines the force of mathematics, what this force builds on, and how it works in practice by discussing mathematics not only from the point of view of applications but also from the point of view of its production. It explores the function of mathematical statements, their epistemological position, consensus in mathematics, and mathematical interpretation and semiosis. It also considers the notion of embodied mathematical cognition as well as the limitations of the cognitive theory of mathematical metaphor in accounting for the formation of actual historical mathematical life worlds. This introduction provides an overview of the current state of the philosophy of mathematics and presents a vignette on option pricing to give a concrete example of how mathematics relates to its wider scientific and practical context, with particular emphasis on the Black-Scholes formula.

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