<p>Anybody know of some good books about math that aren't like problem sets? It doesn't have to be philosophy in the Pythagorean sense (although if you do know some good books about that, I would be interested), but pretty much anything inspiring about math.</p>
<p>Bump!</p>
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<p>Godel, Escher, Bach :)</p>
<p>Anything on mathematical beauty is great.</p>
<p>What would be an example of a book onmathematical beauty?</p>
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<p>Well, this isn’t purely about mathematical beauty, but look at “The Principles of Mathematics” by Bertrand Russell.</p>
<p>Alright, I’ll take a look at it. Thanks!</p>
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<p>“What Is Mathematics? An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods” by Courant, Robbins, and Stewart </p>
<p>"Succeeds brilliantly in conveying the intellectual excitement of mathematical inquiry and in communicating the essential ideas and methods."Journal of Philosophy</p>
<p>“It is a work of high perfection, whether judged by aesthetic, pedagogical or scientific standards. It is astonishing to what extent What is Mathematics? has succeeded in making clear by means of the simplest examples all the fundamental ideas and methods which we mathematicians consider the life blood of our science.”–Herman Weyl</p>
<p>At NYU, they named the math science building after Courant. </p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> What Is Mathematics? An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods (9780195105193): Richard Courant, Herbert Robbins, Ian Stewart: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Elementary-Approach-Ideas-Methods/dp/product-description/0195105192/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Elementary-Approach-Ideas-Methods/dp/product-description/0195105192/ref=dp_proddesc_0?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books)</p>
<p>While looking online at the book just mentioned, I came across several interesting books by Bertrand Russell. Do you think these books would be better than that of Courant?</p>
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<p>Russell, as a mathematician, was principally interested in logic as the foundation of deductive systems in mathematics. He also, as a philosopher, was interested in set theory and paradoxes such as Russell’s Paradox: Is the set of all sets a member of itself? If you go this route, consider, too, Godel’s incompleteness theorem. Russell also wrote some very accessible books on philosophy and the history of philosophy. Great reads by A Nobel Laureate in literature, and biased–all philosophy culminates in him. </p>
<p>Courant’s book is focused on straight-up mathematical topics, spanning the range of topics that a math major would study.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help, I decided to go with russel’s introduction to mathematical philosophy!</p>
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