What do you think?
Rate this book
123 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1967
I found this book after falling in love with the Socratic dialogue of Plato’s Euthyphro (review here). I had read through it and wondered why I didn’t know of any other works written in a similar style. The explanation of concepts through the flow of questions and answers seemed so right to me, yet how come I only know of it from this thousands-year-old philosopher?
If Euthyphro was a clear, sunny day, Rényi’s Dialogues on Mathematics was that same day plus a nice refreshing breeze Come the evening of the day I had borrowed my copy, I had read each dialogue, completely, and slowly. It’s no difficult feat, mind you, the book is only 100 pages. It’s beautifully short and sweet, and its aftertaste lingers in my mind.
Not only entertaining, the dialogues are love letters to math disguised as fantastically constructed historical conversations. While a modern reader with a high school understanding of math wouldn’t learn any new concepts, anybody who likes math will find it difficult to resist grinning while reading. Expertly subtle references coming from the mouths of the greatest minds in history make the experience satisfying for any reader, even those who do not understand the beauty of logical thinking. If such people read this book honestly, I believe they would emerge as different people.
Dialogues on Mathematics made me wonder why there weren’t more expository works written in such a manner. Sure, it would be challenging and not a good fit for every subject, but any topic grounded in logic would benefit greatly from such a publication.
Even if only for entertainment, I would read this book again.