Mathematics, form and function

What Hacker News says

1. telOct 2023
   Part of the issue is that there is no simple Why. To invent one is to either petition history or invent some perspective. It's not a bad idea to do these things, didactically, but they're unnecessary for the material. Or, said another way, there's something to be said for discovering your own "why" through familiarity with the many wonderous properties the complex numbers enjoy.

   That said, that's a frustrating answer. An excellent book which does just what I said above and tells a lightly fictionalized "just so" story of the "history and development" of mathematics as an excuse to introduce everything in a motivated fashion is MacLane's Mathematics: Form and Function which I just recommend endlessly.

   https://www.amazon.com/Mathematics-Form-Function-Saunders-Ma...

   Show morethread
2. bmitcSep 2022
   Some interesting entries I know about:

   * Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics Into Being by George Lakoff and Rafael Nunez

   * The Mathematician's Mind by Jacques Hadamard

   * Mathematics Form and Function by Saunders MacLane

   * On the Brink of Paradox: Highlights from the Intersection of Philosophy and Mathematics by Agustin Rayo

   The preface and chapter 1 of A Book of Abstract Algebra by Charles C. Pinter has an excellent discussion of a certain perspective of mathematics. Hermann Weyl wrote a lot about this stuff too.

   Show morethread
3. auggieroseFeb 2022
   Time to read "Mathematics: Form and Function" by Saunders Mac Lane, my friend.
   thread
4. nicklafOct 2019
   Mathematics and Logic by Mark Kac and Stan Ulam (1992 Dover paperback, ISBN 978-0486670850) [1]

   Mathematics, Form and Function by Saunders Mac Lane (1986 Springer-Verlag hardcover, ISBN 0-387-96217-4) [2]

   [1]: https://www.cut-the-knot.org/books/kac/index.shtml

   [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematics,_Form_and_Function

   thread
5. devmacrileOct 2019
   +1 on Mathematics, Form and Function
   thread
6. mleventalAug 2018
   mathematics form and function by Mac Lane (sweeping coverage of all of math at about the undergrad math major level by one of the best mathematicians of the 20th) and the power broker by Caro (no clue really - Robert Moses was the most effective public works new York has ever had, brought down Tammany hall but also quite racist - came highly recommended in an r/NYC thread about him)
   thread