Mathematics for human flourishing (book review)

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Math is often seen as a cold reclusive discipline. This books talks about the beautiful and graceful side of math. It talks about the role of math in flourishing and achieving a fulfilled life. It talks about how math speaks not  just to the mind but also to the heart as well, and how it is possible to enjoy math, and do this collectively as flourishing communities.  

Math got its ill reputation because of the way it is taught. I wrote several times about my gripes on this. 

"The Bourbaki program was the extreme expression of the Cartesian style. It narrowed the scope of mathematics by excluding the beautiful flowers that Baconian travelers might collect by the wayside."

The goals of introducing generality and rigor in the Bourbaki process are great but that should not (and does not) imply shunning the presentation of the thought-processes that led to these results. Our job is to communicate to other humans and the goal of formalizing things should be to make things easier to grasp for humans not to obfuscate them.

This book is an extended version of Francis Su's retirement speech three years ago as the president of the Mathematical Association of America. (Here is a transcript of that talk.)

The book has the following chapters:

  1. flourishing 
  2. exploration 
  3. meaning
  4. play 
  5. truth 
  6. beauty 
  7. struggle 
  8. permanence 
  9. power 
  10. justice 
  11. freedom
  12. community
  13. love

I especially liked the chapter on play. The chapter includes a quote from G. K. Chesterson, "It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play." It then expands on this quote and adds "Play is a deep human desire, and it is a mark of human flourishing. .. Mathematics makes the mind its playground." 

The book has very nice quotes to accompany each chapter. Some of them are:

  • Every being cries out silently to be read differently. --Simone Weil,
  • It is like being lost in a jungle and trying to use all the knowledge that you can gather to come up with some new tricks, and with some luck you might find a way out. --Maryam Mirzakhani
  • Every word is a dead metaphor. --Jorge Luis Borges
  • Play is the exultation of the possible.  --Martin Buber
  • Do not, then, my friend, keep children to their studies by compulsion, but by play. --Plato
  • With every simple act of thinking, something permanent, substantial, enters our soul. --Bernard Riemann
  • Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth, we cannot know it.  --Blaise Pascal
  • Every time that a human being succeeds in making an effort of attention with the sole idea of increasing his grasp of truth, he acquires a greater aptitude for grasping it, even if his effort produces no visible fruit.  --Simone Weil
  • Wrestling with a problem, persistently trying out various strategies, being unafraid of making mistakes, and progressing incrementally to understand the underlying ideas produces a certain kind of endurance, which enables us to be comfortable with the struggle. --Francis Su
  • Power does not corrupt men; fools, however, if they get into a position of power, corrupt power.  --George Bernard Shaw
  • I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.  --Paul the Apostle
  • The real satisfaction from mathematics is in learning from others and sharing with others. All of us have clear understanding of a few things and murky concepts of many more.  --Bill Thurston


The book has many nice puzzles throughout. You will enjoy the book a lot, and I think the book will also be a great read for the budding mathematical explorers (epsilons as Paul Erdos used to call them) in your life. I think the level of the book is appropriate for grades 7 and up. When my kids asked me "When will we ever use this stuff?" I used to tell them, "You are using it right now to grow your brain!" Now, I have a more comprehensive answer. I will say "You will use this for flourishing. Mathematics helps people flourish," and hand them this book.   

In this shorter talk, Francis Su talks about grace in teaching. This advice is useful for academics, but it is also as applicable to anyone in tech field as well. What is the point of making life miserable for newcomers to a field? Is the idea, this stuff was hard for me to learn, you should also suffer? Shouldn't we benefit more, and flourish both our hearts and our minds, if we make our fields more accessible to new comers?

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