1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Simple, accessible, and insightful, June 25, 2006
"Dialogues on Mathematics" contains three dialogues involving characters such as Socrates and Archimedes (separately). They're written in classic style, and at first I thought they may be translations from Plato or something.
I've only read a third of the book, so I'll restrict my comment to that. Hippocrates asks Socrates if mathematics is worth studying, thus initiating a genuinely Socratic dialogue on the nature of mathematics and its relationship to the real world.
Even as a long-time consumer of mathematical thought (and now a mathematics teacher) there was plenty of substance in the dialogue for me: nice analogies and a sense of conviction of the importance of mathematics.
I picked this book up at a university book sale for $6. At the time, it seemed expensive compared to the other offerings, especially as it's only 100 pages. I now offer this brief review to encourage anyone who reads it that this book is well worth obtaining if you have the chance.
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