致青年数学家的信
Letters to a young mathematician
Ian Stewart · 初版 2006 年
5人推荐
6位读者提及
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“Letters to a Young Mathematician 向读者讲述了 Ian Stewart 还是学生时便渴望知晓的一切。从哲学思考到实践经验，他探讨了广泛的课题——数学是什么以及为何值得钻研、逻辑与证明的关系、美在数学思维中的作用、数学的未来、如何应对数学圈子的奇特怪癖等等——其风格既含蓄幽默、亲切随和，又极擅切中问题要害。”——封套文案。
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……这本书的本质在于实用。奥尔德斯·赫胥黎的《美丽新世界》：重读了一遍。考虑到当今世界的情形，读来让人略感压抑。我不禁琢磨哪种现实会更好一些。伊恩·斯图尔特的《致青年数学家》：读起来轻松但收获满满。我以前在数学自信心上挣扎得很厉害，这本书帮我化解了不少。莫提默·J·艾德勒的《如何听，如何说》：有很多实用建议……
…nature of the book is practicality. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: A reread. A bit depressing considering the state of the world today. I found myself wondering which reality would be preferable. Letters to a Young Mathematician by Ian Stewart: Easy, but fruitful read. I've struggled a lot with math confidence, and this helped alleviate a lot of that. How to Speak, How to Listen by Mortimer J. Adler: A lot of practical advice.…
……前几天去了图书馆，看到一排排可以追溯到18世纪、来自全球各地的期刊文献，让我意识到数学的世界到底有多庞大。不过，就像伊恩·斯图尔特在《致青年数学家》里说的那样，数学就像一座倒金字塔——解决一个问题，就会衍生出更多有待解决的分支。所以，说不定一个有毅力的业余爱好者也能做出突破呢。
…library the other day and the stacks and stacks of journals dating from the 1700's and from various parts of the globe made me realize just how much math is out there. Still, like Ian Stewart said in his "Letters to a Young Mathematician", math is an inverted pyramid - when a problem is solved, it leads to more branches to be solved. So maybe breakthroughs are possible from a determined amateur.
我推荐伊恩·斯图尔特的《致青年数学家》。在我这个菜鸟看来，他非常精炼地回答了你的问题（柏拉图主义与形式主义之争）。照他所说，“大多数数学家在实际工作中所秉持的哲学，多半是一种未经深思的柏拉图主义-形式主义……
I recommend Ian Stewart's Letters to a Young Mathematician. He addresses your question (Platonism vs formalism) pretty succinctly, in my opinion as a noob. Accordingly "the working philosophy of most mathematicians is a mostly unexamined Platonist-Formalist…
……它不是一本技术书，但它让我第一次了解到数学家平时究竟在做什么，以及那是怎样一个过程。正是这本书促使我大学选了数学专业。伊恩·斯图尔特的任何书也都很棒，脑海里一下子就冒出了《致青年数学家》。鉴于你用的是带 s 的“maths”，我猜你不是美国人。如果你跟我一样是英国人，我建议别看针对美国高中生的书，因为它们……
…It's not a technical book but gave me my first idea of what mathematicians actually do and how the process works. This book motivated me to major in maths. Anything by Ian Stewart would also be good, 'Letters to a Young Mathematician' springs to mind. Given that you use the word 'maths' with an s I'm guessing you're not American. If you're British like me, I would recommend avoiding American books for high schoolers because they…
Gucci Mane 的自传怎么样？有趣吗、励志吗、搞笑吗？感觉跟其他几本书画风完全不一样哈哈。《致青年数学家》我也读过，说实话，这是当年我在学校（从心理上）挺过数学课的重要原因之一。
How was The Autobiography of Gucci Mane? Was it interesting, inspiring, funny, etc? It seems like a huge change of pace from the other books haha. I’ve also read Letters to a Young Mathematician and it honestly one of the reasons I was able to survive my math classes (mentally) when I was in school.
……三十多个细分领域。我认为，当知识分子转向内向探索时，更大的文化层面上会受到损害。”这非常符合伊恩·斯图尔特对数学界的感慨。在他的一本书里（我记得是《致青年数学家》），他提到现在发表数学成果的期刊浩如烟海，但整个领域现在全是由互不理解对方工作的狭隘专才组成的。考虑到……
…more than 30 subfields. The larger culture, I believe, suffers when intellectuals turn inward." This is very much what Ian Stewart has lamented about the field of math. In one of his books (I think "Letters to a Young Mathematician") he mentions that there are now a vast multitude of journals that publish work about math, but that the field now consists of narrow specialists who are unable to understand each others work. Considering…