» Men of Mathematics (Touchstone Book)

Men of Mathematics (Touchstone Book) Reviews

Customer Rating:
Summary: Cornerstone Reading for Math-Magicians Among Us+
Comment: This was a great read on historical mathematics.I'm not surprised it's still considered an intellectual classic for numerophiles around.The book is a bit dated.So,if you don't care for classical mathematics and the times the mathematians lived,then you will be bored silly.I love history and the stories about the various historical math-builders,who added something to the development of number functions.They were rebels and magicians ,who dared to question the known laws of the judeo-christian society.The math rebels defied the accepted rules of the church,and challenged the views of the chief pontif and other elder preachers.The names of these mathematical men are known to today's students of calculus,yet their lives and philosophical views were not.This book is still a great place to start,on your path towards a better understanding of the evolution and progress of modern advanced mathematics.Mathematicians simply use numbers and formulas to calculate matter and their functional processes within Nature.The layman sees this as magical wizardry.The true mathematian sees mathematics as a spiritual communion with the forces and elements of Nature.This book has inspired and enchanted countless math readers ,into inquiring and confronting one's own surrounding social mores,that had fettered past pursuits of mathematical freedom.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A fascinating book about mathematicians
Comment: This is a book containing biographies of great mathematicians. It starts with Zeno and ends with Cantor. This was the book that I read when I was a small boy and it whetted my appetite for wanting to know more about mathematics and mathematicians. It is written in Bell's inimitable flippant, humorous and engaging style. You may not agree with everything he says but what he says is certainly interesting and even fascinating. Want to get someone interested in math? Don't give him a dense math text-you turn him off-but introduce him to this book.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great book on review of mathematics
Comment: Its a very good book on review of mathematics. It deals with evolution of mathematics as a whole. It is definitely not for general public.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: No Harm No Foul
Comment: From page 86 of the Touchstone edition: "The PENSEES and the PROVICINCIAL LETTERS, apart from their literary excellences, appeal principally to a type of mind that is rapidly becoming extinct." Even though I am here reading that my mind is rapidly becoming extinct, I still got a huge kick out of Bell's literary caricature of Pascal. Bell treats Pascal and his proponents with a kind of highlander tough love: giving us a dose of what bootcamp with kilts is probably like. lol. So anyway, I don't find Bell's writing in his literary portrait of Pascal at all anti-Christian. On the contrary, I find Bell a breath of fresh air. He obviously far more than means well. For he provides a more or less impartial commentary on Pascal in his curmudgeonly, jocular, celtic way.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Men of Mathematics
Comment: My family has produced several mathematicians, but I am not one of them. However, this book is extremely interesting- just do as I did and skim right over the math.

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