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2001 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

The Real Numbers

Author : Stephen Abbott

Published in: Understanding Analysis

Publisher: Springer New York

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Toward the end of his distinguished career, the renowned British mathematician G.H. Hardy eloquently laid out a justification for a life of studying mathematics in A Mathematician’s Apology, an essay first published in 1940. At the center of Hardy’s defense is the thesis that mathematics is an aesthetic discipline. For Hardy, the applied mathematics of engineers and economists held little charm. “Real mathematics,” as he referred to it, “must be justified as art if it can be justified at all.”

Metadata
Title
The Real Numbers
Author
Stephen Abbott
Copyright Year
2001
Publisher
Springer New York
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-21506-8_1

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