Descartes Dream

by Philip J. Davis

Book by Davis, Philip J.

Genres: Mathematics, Philosophy, Science, Nonfiction, History

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

Reviews

[Truls Ljungström · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jag förstår både varför min morfar menade att detta var en av de viktigaste böckerna han läst, och varför den är välförtjänt bortglömd. Boken en sådan där som spårar upp för kommande böcker. I detta fall beskriver den problemet med övermekanisering, i en dator- och datadriven kontext.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many Dover editions, this is a reprint. It is a chance to enjoy a book that was maybe missed the first time around. The original text appeared in 1987. The collection of pieces in the compendium encourages thought. The first thought I took from this book was, “is there anywhere else that uses this verb ‘mathematize’?” Well, just as surely as Robert Anton Wilson (R.I.P.) said that by synchronicity merely thinking about quarters will make them appear to me on the ground, I see now the verb is here in the article “Galileo’s Construction of Idealized Fall in the Void” in number xliii of History of Science (2005).

Appropriate enough, since much of the articles contained in the collection that is Descartes’ Dream strike us now as historical. This is because the “mathematization” explored in this book tends more toward computerization than even it tends toward Descartes. The breathless pace of change since this work’s inception has left it considering the implications of COBOL but unable to foresee the impact of the Internet. The fact that some references are dated does not diminish much the value of this book. There is as value here as in other ostensibly dated works on applied computer science, such as Programming Pearls (Jon Bentley) or The Cuckoo’s Egg (Clifford Stoll).

Following on the heels of their success with The Mathematical Experience (reissued by Springer), the authors compiled another book on mathematics, as opposed to being a mathematics book. Specific to applied mathematics, this volume focuses a lot on application of computer technology, applied statistics and the like. The articles are grouped in such categories as “Cognitions and Computation” and “Mathematics and Ethics”. The piece take a very high level, even philosophical, view.

Many of the pieces are much too short and superficial to make much headway in the weighty topic, they examine, but some among the longer ones succeed particularly well. Among the strongest offerings is “The Stochastized World: A Matter of Style?” Beside the suspicious inclusion of another apparent neologism, this article is an interesting look at the basic application of probability and enlightens through a simple example where the outcome of a basic coin toss can be modeled probabilistically in contradictory ways that are each are sound in isolation. It all depends on what premises are allowed. “Feedback and Control: The Equilibrium Machine” is a blueprint for the workshop hobbyist to exhibit Torricelli’s Law and model other fluid dynamics principals. Comedic relief occurs during the lively “Social Tyranny in Numbers” article, particularly the section “Mathematics and Rhetoric”. If you want to sound profound in ridiculing a pompous lecture or devalue the label “refereed”, you will find ample ammunition here. Maybe the better to be ready to defend yourself!

File this between Clifford Pickover and Douglas R. Hofstadter, but it gets there topically, not by quality or as memorably. Still, reading this text, which can be started anywhere, will inspire conversations in the mathematically inclined and in that perhaps the authors have succeeded in their goal with a book that still stirs thought two decades after its birth.

[Asif Syed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite outdated. Not sure if it's got a newer edition, but the one I read didn't interest me much with its fairly ancient notions about computerisation. Better if read as a collection of essays on the history of math or something.

[dani dani · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wasn’t entirely sure what to expect but the essays in the book helped guide my thinking in the man-machine or man-computer affair (instead of just feeling strongly one way about it).

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

n „Descartes' Traum“ analysieren Davis und Hersh mit klarem Blick und provokanter Schärfe, wie der Traum von einer vollständig durch Zahlen erklärbaren Welt zur Realität unseres Alltags geworden ist. Sie entlarven die Mathematik dabei nicht als neutrale, platonische Wahrheit, sondern als ein mächtiges rhetorisches Werkzeug, das eine "soziale Tyrannei" ausübt, indem es Kriterien für Sozialpolitik, Tests und sogar persönliche Beziehungen vorschreibt. Dieses Buch ist eine essentielle philosophische Warnung vor der „aufgezwungenen Wirklichkeit“ der Berechnung – und dem stillen „Bedeutungsverlust“, der entsteht, wenn Abstraktion zum Ersatz für Erfahrung wird.

[Robert Barron]

Reference

[Shirlsd]

Descartes' Dream; The World According to Mathematics by Philip J. & Reuben Hersh Davis (1986)