A Mathematician's Apology (Canto)

More than sixty-six years ago G. H. Hardy so eloquently apologized to the World for mathematics. You might say that no apology is needed, but many of my calculus students beg to disagree!

Back then in the shadow of one World War, and in the approach to a second, Hardy, a pacifist, and the Platonic puritan he was clearly had in mind pure mathematics. -- (And at the time, some parts of applied math had been used in an unpopular war.)

Now reflecting on this many years later, I couldn't help wonder if in the mean time the winds could have changed; wondering whether perhaps now a math author who trespasses into engineering topics and other applied domains might not be expected to apologize; --- at least if he/she has in mind math students as his primary audience. Aside from this, Hardy's lovely little book has over the years become a paradigm for math apologies, and any apologetic mathematician ought to at least mention Hardy in her credits.

Review by Palle Jorgensen, October 2005.


A classic review from a great mathematician   February 10, 2001
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

This is a very enjoyable read decribing life as a mathematician. It contains an excellent discussion about how mathematics can be extremely elegant with examples proving that the square root of 2 is irrational and the number of primes is infinite. It is also gives an interesting perspective into his relationship with the Indian mathematician Ramanujan and the culture of Cambridge mathematics during the first half of the twentieth century.

Passages from this book have been quoted in a wide variety of sources and I would recommend the book for anybody with an interest in the history of mathematics or for anybody thinking of studying mathematics at a higher level.

Dave Cavill Head of Mathematics, Grove School Newark UK