The central theme of these essays is the nature and role of mathematics,
its growth and spread, and its involvement with ever-wider areas of
knowledge. The author attempts to determine the decisive and creative
aspects of the abstractness" of mathematics which have made it the
dominant intellectual force that it is. He frequently confronts the
mathematics and physics of today with the mathematics and physics of the
Greeks, which, however renowned, was not yet capable of this
abstractness.
Originally published in 1966.
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