作者	J.P.AubinAubin
出版社
出版时间	1998-03-01

特色：

Asinordinarylanguage,metaphorsmaybeusedinmathematicstoexplainagivenphenomenonbyassociatingitwithanotherwhichis(orisconsideredtobe)morefamiliar.Itisthissenseoffamiliarity,whetherindividualorcollective,innateoracquiredbyeducation,whichenablesonetoconvinceoneselfthatonehasunderstoodthephenomenoninquestion.Contrarytopopularopinion,mathematicsisnotsimplyaricherormorepreciselanguage.Mathematicalreasoningisaseparatefacultypossessedbyallhumanbrains,justliketheabilitytocomposeorlistentomusic,topaintorlookatpaintings,tobelieveinandfollowculturalormoralcodes,etc.Butitisimpossible(anddangerous)tocomparethesevariousfacultieswithinahierarchicalframework;inparticular,onecannotspeakofthesuperiorityofthelanguageofmathematics.Naturally,theconstructionofmathematicalmetaphorsrequirestheautonomousdevelopmentofthedisciplinetoprovidetheorieswhichmaybesubstitutedfororassociatedwiththephenomenatobeexplained.Thisisthedomainofpuremathematics.Theconstruction-ofthemathematicalcorpusobeysitsownlogic,likethatofliterature,musicorart.Inallthesedomains,anaestheticsatisfactionisatoncetheobjectiveofthecreativeactivityandasignalwhichenablesonetorecognisesuccessfulworks.(Likewise,inallthesedomains,fashionablephenomena-reflectingsocialconsensus-areusedtodevelopaestheticcriteria).