The best mathematics is like literature--it brings a story to life before your eyes and involves you in it, intellectually and emotionally.(What Is Mathematics? An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods by Richard Courant and Herbert Robbins)
HAve you read Courant and Robbins? Actually it's a very complex book. The point of what they are trying to say is that because the teaching of mathematics has degenerated to the correct application of rules the study of mathematics is in grave danger.
Formal mathematics is like spelling and grammar--a matter of the correct application of local rules.
ReplyDeleteMeaningful mathematics is like journalism--it tells an interesting story. But unlike some journalism, the story has to be true.
ReplyDeleteThe best mathematics is like literature--it brings a story to life before your eyes and involves you in it, intellectually and emotionally.(What Is Mathematics? An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods by Richard Courant and Herbert Robbins)
ReplyDeleteHAve you read Courant and Robbins? Actually it's a very complex book. The point of what they are trying to say is that because the teaching of mathematics has degenerated to the correct application of rules the study of mathematics is in grave danger.
ReplyDelete