Re: On Hardy's essay: "A mathematician's apology"

From: Karl M. Bunday (kmbunday_at_yahoo.de.com)
Date: 01/11/05 

Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2005 06:29:57 GMT

Nobuo Saito wrote, about Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology:

> If he does not get money by studying mathematics, his apology is obviously okay.
> Everyone can do whatever he likes to do as long as it's legal and not against
> moral.
> The fact was that he did get money from the government.

Hardy got a salary from a university, as I recall, and I suppose he also
gained royalty income from his books. Most of what he did day by day to
fulfill university duties (or to revise his book manuscripts) was only
partially related to what Hardy really liked to do, which was to find
beautiful mathematical discoveries, right?

> He did not know that number theory would be applied in cryptology,
> but this is beside his point.

He gloried in the uselessness (as he supposed) of the mathematics he
investigated most thoroughly. Now his mistaken supposition about the
uselessness of number theory is taking as a paradigmatic case by a new
generation of mathematicians who also can't see immediate applications
for their work--but who do not suppose that their work is therefore
incapable of being applied to future practical problems.

A Mathematician's Apology is a very interesting read. I think I was
nudged to finally get it from a library and read it after reading
Michael Spivak's list of suggested readings in his calculus textbook. 

-- 
Karl M. Bunday  P.O. Box 1456, Minnetonka MN 55345
Learn in Freedom (TM) http://learninfreedom.org/
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: On Hardys essay:
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  • Re: Ugly Beauty and Aesthetic Value
    ... You're taking 'apology' in its diluted modern sense. ... the word in its Latinate sense, as in Cardinal Newman's autobiography ... Hardy is by no means 'apologetic', ... chose as an example of pure mathematics. ...
    (rec.music.classical.guitar)
  • Re: On Hardys essay: "A mathematicians apology"
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    (sci.math)
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