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Reuben Hersh rhersh at math.unm.edu
Thu Jan 15 11:45:18 EST 1998


A belated introduction.

I am retired after half a lifetime of mathematics teaching, research,
and writing.   I have dozens of published research articles, mostly
on hyperbolic partial differential equations and random evolutions.  I
also have dozens of published expository, philosophical asnd pedagogical
articles.  I am on the editorial board of Philosophia Mathematica.
I organized a panel on new directions in the philosophy of mathematics
at a national meeting of the AAAS.  The proceedings appeared in Synthese.
I have written or co-authored three books.  The first, The Mathematical
Experience, coauthored with Philip J. Davis and Elena Anne Marachisotto,
won a National Book Award, and is available in French, German, Spanish,
Italian, Hungarian, Rumanian, Portuguese (separate editions in Brazil and 
Portugal), Polish, Japanese and Chinese.  It is "tremendously influential"
in the Netherlands, Germany, China, New Zealand and Israel, and somewhat
influential in the United States.  Also with Philip J. Davis, I wrote
Descartes Dream.  My new book, What is Mathematics Really, has been
published in the U.S. and the U.K., where a paperback is scheduled
to come out in July.  It has also been accepted for publication in
Italy.  As members of the f.o.m. list may remember, it has already
been attacked by Martin Gardner and by a N.Y.Times staffer. On
the other hand, it was highly praised by Ian Stewart, a leading
English mathematician, Gian-Carlo Rota, a leading American 
mathematician-philosopher, and Philip Kitcher, a leading American
philosopher.  Stewart's review appeared in the London Times.

Reuben Hersh



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