A mathematician's apology
by G. H. Hardy, Iñaki Iñurrieta Labaien, John von Neumann, Pedro Pacheco González · first published 1940
47% recommend48% neutral5% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short, beautifully written defense of pure mathematics for its own sake, with a candid look at a mathematician's mind and life choices. Accessible to non-mathematicians and rewarding for those who studied math.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
G. H. Hardy was one of this century's finest mathematical thinkers, renowned among his contemporaries as a 'real mathematician … the purest of the pure'. He was also (as C. P. Snow recounts in his Foreword to the 1967 edition) 'unorthodox, eccentric, radical, ready to talk about anything'. 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
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…mathematics is (or if deleterious notions from your schooldays are continuing to blind you from the simple beauty of pure mathematics). I will add as well the recommendation that you read G.H. Hardy's essay, "A Mathematician's Apology". Learning mathematics is so incredibly difficult for the novice because it is almost impossible to teach this process. One must fail over and over again. I cannot lie: mathematics will be probably be…
on “Ask HN: How or where to begin learning mathematics from first principles?” ↗I just read A Mathematician's Apology. Really interesting, it really puts Hesse's Glass Bead Game in context.
on “Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have changed your life” ↗A Mathematician's Apology is a beautiful read, by definitions both plain and, to some degree, those elaborated in the essay itself. One interesting thing about the relevancy of the essay is the potential change in the aesthetics…
on “Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have changed your life” ↗I am reminded of what C P Snow wrote about the beautiful piece of writing called "A Mathematician's Apology" by G H Hardy: A mathematicians apology is, if read with the textual attention it deserves, a book of haunting sadness. Yes, it is witty and sharp with intellectual high spirits: yes, the crystalline…
on “You are not running out of time” ↗I read GH Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology last month and adored the relationship Hardy and Ramanujan had. (great book by the way - easy to read for even a non math person)
on “125th Birthday of Ramanujan” ↗At higher state of mind you do things for sack of doing or some intrinsic pleasure or even no purpose at all. G.H Hardy puts this best in his book Mathematician's Apology by describing why mathematicians do math. He mentioned, as a mathematician, he never cared about utility of its work. In fact he avoided anything that he thought could be remotely useful after many centuries.…
on “I'm Leaving Mojang” ↗A Mathematician's Apology by G. H. Hardy. Went into it thinking I was reading a book on math and ended up reading a book about life.
on “Ask HN: Books on specific topics that have applied to many areas of your life?” ↗A Mathematician's Apology, by G.H. Hardy https://www.math.ualberta.ca/mss/misc/A%20Mathematician%27s%...
on “Ask HN: Which books have made you introspect?” ↗Lawrence in Arabia by Scott Anderson A mathematician's apology by G.H Hardy My Struggle by Karl Ove Knausgaard Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts Lenin: The Man, the Dictator,…
on “Ask HN: Biographies recommendations – both Westerner and Non-westerner” ↗…beautiful mathematics was that which had no practical applications in the outside world (pure mathematics) and, in particular, his own special field of number theory." -- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Mathematician's_Apology G. H. Hardy, A mathematician's apology. I think that would be a good example here, since the focus is on finding beauty and fulfilment, instead of simply visiting every niche.
on “How real are real numbers? (2004)” ↗…by Stanislaw Lem. It's the book about everything existing, possible and impossible too. For me it gives motivation to learn new, think about something new, try to find limits of what I already know. "Mathematician's Apology" by G.H.Hardy. IDK why exactly this book (essay?) influenced me. I'm not a mathematician but I certainly found something that touches me. "ANSI Common Lisp" by Paul Graham. I did not became a lisper…
on “Ask HN: Books that improved your career?” ↗…books that have inspired me: 1."Uncle Petros & Goldback's Conjecture" & "Logicomix" (both by Apostolos Doxiadis), 2."Chaos" by James Gleick, 3. "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" by Paul Hoffman 4. "A Mathematician's Apology" by G.H. Hardy 5. "The Indian Clerk" (fiction) by David Leavitt (about GH Hardy & Ramanujan) 6. "Genius at Play" by Siobhan Roberts (about John Conway). Normally I stay away from pop-math books with…
on “Ask HN: Books that made you fascinated to learn more mathematics?” ↗If you want to read a more thorough defence of the value of pure mathematics research, I recommend that you read A Mathematician's Apology by G.H. Hardy. Hardy witnessed first-hand the beginnings of the applications of his field, number theory, to cryptography. At that time, the only use for cryptography was in warfare so as a committed…
on “What Makes for 'Good' Mathematics?” ↗Men of mathematics (E T Bell) and A mathematician's apology (G H Hardy).
on “Ask HN: Good books on mathematics for somebody who's only taken high school math?” ↗see: G H Hardy's "A Mathematician's Apology"
on “Formerly good at math, but I've lost my skills. Any advice to grow them back?” ↗