Hello my name is John and I'm having a philosophical debate on the meaning of numbers, equations, or the world of math in general. Would it be possible if you could help me by giving me a resource that talks about it or if you have your own opinion I would be most grateful. Thank you for your time and effort.

 


Hi John,

I will give you two references and if you or others who read this have further references let me know and I will add them.

Stanislas Dehaene, The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics, Oxford University Press, 1997

George Lakoff and Rafael Núñez, Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being, Basic Books, 2000.

The first of these is lighter reading than the second but I found both engrossing.

And here is a third

Barry Mazur, Imagining Numbers (particularly the square root of minus fifteen), Farrar Straus Giroux, 2003.

Harley