Metadata
- Full title: Mathematics for Human Flourishing
- Authors: Francis Su, Christopher Jackson
- Year published: 2020
- Tags:joy
Highlights
Preface
This book is not about how great mathematics is, though it is, indeed, a glorious endeavor. Nor does it focus on what math can do, though it undeniably can do many things. Rather, this is a book that grounds mathematics in what it means to be a human being and to live a more fully human life.
Maybe the way for you to see yourself in mathematics is not for me to convince you that math is great or that math does lots of wonderful things, but for me to show you that math is intimately tied to being human. For then your deepest human desires reveal your mathematical nature and you need only to awaken it.
Chapter 1: Flourishing
Math is everywhere:
Mathematical tools are now prominent in every sector of the workforce, including the most dominant ones; presently, technology companies are the four most valuable companies in the world. This means that power is now even more vested in those with mathematical skills. In the span of a young person’s lifetime, the tools of our daily lives have become mathematical as well. Search engines now satisfy our every investigative whim, with algorithms powered by linear algebra and advertising powered by game theory. Smartphones have become our digital butlers, storing our data in algebraically locked closets, interpreting our voice commands with statistical sensibilities, and pleasing us with a selection of analytically decompressed music. Pages 6-7
Human flourishing refers to a wholeness—of being and doing, of realizing one’s potential and helping others do the same, of acting with honor and treating others with dignity, of living with integrity even in challenging circumstances. It is not the same as happiness, and it is not just a state of mind. The well-lived life is a life of human flourishing. Page 10
Therefore, each of the following chapters is devoted to one basic human desire whose fulfillment is a sign of human flourishing. In each, I illustrate how the pursuit of mathematics can meet this desire, and I illuminate the virtues that are cultivated by engaging in math in this way. Pages 11-12
I’m saying that the pursuit of math can, if grounded in human desires, build aspects of character and habits of mind that will allow you to live a more fully human life and experience the best of what life has to offer. None of us is wholly virtuous; we all are works in progress with room to grow. And there are many ways to grow in virtue, not just in mathematics. But does the proper practice of mathematics build particular virtues, like the ability to think clearly and to reason well? Unequivocally yes, and it may do so in a distinctive way. Page 12
Chapter 2: Exploration
Mathematical exploration is very much like space exploration, but of a different kind of space—a space of ideas. You don’t know what you’ll find when you start. You send out probes to test theories. You are captivated by mystery, motivated by questions, undeterred by setbacks. You make discoveries from a distance: because the ideas themselves are not physical, you access this space through reason. Exploration and understanding are at the heart of what it means to do mathematics.