Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Birkhäuser

Discrete Thoughts

Essays on Mathematics, Science and Philosophy

  • Book
  • © 1992

Overview

Authors:
  1. Mark Kac
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Gian-Carlo Rota

    1. Dept. of Mathematics and Philosophy, MIT, Cambridge, USA

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  3. Jacob T. Schwartz

    1. Courant Institute, New York, USA

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Beautifully written articles from three great modern mathematicians
  • Ideas provoke thought and debate
  • Provides a source for supplemental reading for almost any math class

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (26 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Discrete Thoughts

    1. Discrete Thoughts

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 1-3

  3. I

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 5-5
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Mathematics: Tensions

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 7-18

    3. The Pernicious Influence of Mathematics on Science

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 19-25

    4. Statistics

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 27-36

    5. Statistics and Its History

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 37-48

    6. Combinatorics

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 49-62

    7. Computer Science

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 63-76

    8. Mathematics: Trends

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 77-103

    9. The Future of Computer Science

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 105-116

    10. Economics, Mathematical and Empirical

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 117-149

  4. II

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Complicating Mathematics

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 153-155

    3. Mathematics and Its History

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 157-161

    4. Academic Responsibility

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 163-166

    5. Husserl and the Reform of Logic

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 167-173

    6. Husserl

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 175-181

    7. Artificial Intelligence

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 183-190

    8. Computing and Its History

      • Mark Kac, Gian-Carlo Rota, Jacob T. Schwartz
      Pages 191-193
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

as anywhere today, it is becoming more d- ficult to tell the truth. To be sure, our store of accurate facts is more plentiful now than it has ever been, and the minutest details of history are being thoroughly recorded. Scientists, - men and scholars vie with each other in publishing excruciatingly definitive accounts of all that happens on the natural, political and historical scenes. Unfortunately, telling the truth is not quite the same thing as reciting a rosary of facts. Jos6 Ortega y Gasset, in an adm- able lesson summarized by Antonio Machado's three-line poem, prophetically warned us that the reason people so often lie is that they lack imagination: they don't realize that the truth, too, is a matter of invention. Sometime, in a future that is knocking at our door, we shall have to retrain ourselves or our children to properly tell the truth. The exercise will be particularly painful in mathematics. The enrapturing discoveries of our field systematically conceal, like footprints erased in the sand, the analogical train of thought that is the authentic life of mathematics. Shocking as it may be to a conservative logician, the day will come when currently MATHEMATICS, IN vague concepts such as motivation and purpose will be made formal and accepted as constituents of a revamped logic, where they will at last be allotted the equal status they deserve, si- by-side with axioms and theorems.

Reviews

From the reviews of the second edition:

"...These papers reflect on mathematics and its influence on human society. They can help the specialist to notice what is going on around him, and they may lead educated people from other domains to a better understanding of mathematics. Many of these papers can advise educators how to form a modern mathematics education, which develops approved ideas and institutions...I admire the stimulating perspectives of the authors"

--American Mathematical Society

"Kac, Rota, and Schwartz have collected here: occasional essays about mathematics, mathematicians, and surrounding subjects. … The essays are fun to read, light in manner but serious in content. Many of them are provocative. … As a result, the book would make wonderful fodder for a reading course or seminar. … Discrete Thoughts is a classic indeed." (Fernando Q. Gouvêa, MathDL, January, 2008)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Dept. of Mathematics and Philosophy, MIT, Cambridge, USA

    Gian-Carlo Rota

  • Courant Institute, New York, USA

    Jacob T. Schwartz

Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation