Musings of the masters

the long version

"This anthology is a collection of articles written by renowned mathematicians of the 20th Century. The articles are on a variety of topics that we refer to, for want of a better name, as "humanistic." An important criterion, thereby limiting the choice, is that the articles should be accessible to the literate reader who may or may not have a technical knowledge of mathematics." "The articles span roughly a century in time and touch on a wide range of subjects. They are by mathematicians acknowledged by their peers as outstanding creators whose work had added richly to the discipline. Each article is preceded by a brief biographical sketch of the author and some indication of the content. In many articles there is a common theme - the attempt to define the role of intuition in mathematical activities - intuition as contrasted with pure formalism, a contrast that can be briefly, if too simply, described by asking whether mathematics is invented or discovered."--Jacket.