What is Mathematics and What Should it Be

By Doron Zeilberger


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[Appeared in Humanizing Mathematics and its Philosophy Essays Celebrating the 90th Birthday of Reuben Hersh, edited by Bharath Sriraman, Birkhauser/Springer, 2017]

Written: April 18, 2017


Dedicated to Reuben Hersh on his (forthcoming) 90th birthday


Today's mathematics is not yet a science. So let's make it a science!

This piece was solicited for (and will hopefully appear in) the 90th-birthday festschrift for one of my great heroes, Reuben Hersh, of "The Mathematical Experience" fame. It is edited by Bharath Sriraman, and is to be published by Birkhauser.


Acknowledgement: Some of the material here was presented in the Georgia Southern University Mathematics Distinguished Lecuture Series. I wish to thank the organizer, Jimmy Dillies, and the other members of the department, in particular, Drew Sills, for their hospitality.


Added April 28, 2017: Read the intereting comments by Mizan R. Khan


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