A Mathematician's Apology
G.H. Hardy
Hardy defends pure mathematics on the grounds of beauty alone, argues that its uselessness is what keeps it clean, and dismisses much applied work as trivial, ugly or dull. He wrote it at sixty-two, after a heart attack, convinced his own creative powers were gone and that mathematics is a young man's game. C. P. Snow, who supplies the foreword, called it a passionate lament for creative powers that used to be and that will never come again.
Why you should read this
Hardy's defense of pure mathematics as an aesthetic pursuit rather than a useful one, written by a working mathematician near the end of his career and often assigned as an entry point into the philosophy of mathematics. Short enough for an afternoon, but presumes some sympathy for math as an art form.
- Field
- Mathematics
- Form
- Non-fiction
- Published
- 1940
- Themes
- Mathematics
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