A Mathematician's Apology
by G. H. Hardy
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1940
- Form
- Essay
- Language
- English
- Length
- Short · 150 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Approachable1 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendA Mathematician's ApologyCambridge University Press (Canto Classics), 2012The standard edition, with C. P. Snow's long biographical foreword, which is half the book's appeal.
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A short essay written by a Cambridge mathematician in his sixties who felt his creative powers were gone. Hardy argues that mathematics is worth doing for its beauty and not for its uses, that pure mathematics is more real and more permanent than the applied kind, and that the best mathematics, like Euclid's proof that there are infinitely many primes, is serious because of the ideas it connects. He is candid that mathematics is a young man's game and that his own life has been justified only by having added something to knowledge.
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The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns A Mathematician's Apology are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
