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A Mathematician's Apology is a 1940 essay by British mathematician G. H. Hardy which defends the pursuit of mathematics for its own sake. Central to Hardy's "apology" – in the sense of a formal justification or defence (as in Plato 's Apology of Socrates) – is an argument that mathematics has value independent of its applications.
- G. H. Hardy, C. P. Snow
- 1940
A Mathematician's Apology is perhaps the most concise piece every written describing the creative process of doing mathematics. Its author, G H Hardy, a world-class theorist of the period between the great wars, describes his attraction to mathematics, defending the role of the pure mathematician.
Feb 2, 2019 · This is an annotated edition of G. H. Hardy’s A Mathematician’s Apology and ‘Mathematics in war-time’, including three essays by the annotator: the first sets the Apology in context in the debate about the justification for mathematics, particularly as an aesthetic pursuit; the second attempts to survey comprehensively contemporary ...
As I had plenty of opportunities to realize in the future, Hardy had no faith in intuitions or impressions, his own or anyone else's. The only way to assess someone's knowledge, in Hardy's view, was to examine him. That went for mathe matics, literature, philosophy, politics, anything you like.
This 'apology', written in 1940 as his mathematical powers were declining, offers a brilliant and engaging account of mathematics as very much more than a science; when it was first published, Graham Greene hailed it alongside Henry James's notebooks as 'the best account of what it was like to be a creative artist'.
- J. F. Randolph, G. H. Hardy
- 1942
Published in 1940, A Mathematician’s Apology, by G. H. Hardy, is an extended essay on why people study mathematics and how its logical purity, much more than its usefulness in daily life, makes it a worthy pursuit. Hardy was one of the 20th century’s most important mathematicians.
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G. H. Hardy is usually known by those outside the field of mathematics for his 1940 essay A Mathematician's Apology, often considered one of the best insights into the mind of a working mathematician written for the layperson.
