Is Mathematics Inevitable?

Underwood Dudley is the bestselling author of several MAA books, including Mathematical Cranks, Numerology, and the Trisectors.

A more accurate question to appear as the title would be ""Is All Mathematics Inevitable?"" It is clear that given the development of human-level intelligence some mathematics is inevitable. For example, counting is clearly inevitable and there have been experiments that demonstrate that human babies can count at a very early age and that many animals can perform rudimentary counting. However, it is uncertain whether some of the more abstract areas of mathematics were inevitable, it is a very interesting point of philosophical debate, being rooted in the Greek mathematics of Plato. ""Is Mathematics Inevitable?"" by Nathan Altshiller Court is just one of the articles. The book is a collection of articles about mathematics, the people that pushed it forward and the context in which they lived their lives. All of the papers are expository, while some of the topics are philosophically deep; the level of mathematics never gets to the point where it would overwhelm an intelligent undergraduate that is beyond calculus. ...Some mathematics books are fun to read, this one is fun, nearly always interesting and could be useful as a text in survey or capstone courses."" - Charles Ashbacher, Journal of Recreational Mathematics