• 悲伤的几何学:关于数学、失落以及人生
  • Geometry of Grief: Reflections on Mathematics, Loss and Life
  • 作者:Michael Frame
  • 出版社代理人:University of Chicago Press(美国)
  • 出版时间:2021年9月
  • 页数:200页包括45张黑白图
  • 已售版权:
  • 版权联系人:tina@peonyliteraryagency.com
内容介绍


在这本意义深远且充满希望的书中,一位数学家及著名教师展示了数学如何帮助我们所有人——甚至是厌恶数学的人——理解和应对悲伤。

 

我们都知道智力顿悟的快感——那种突然理解的快感。但伴随着兴奋的是一种失落感:顿悟的时刻永远不会重复。在《悲伤的几何学》中,数学家 Michael Frame 汲取了他职业生涯中的观察——包括他与分形几何先驱 Benoit Mandelbrot 的合作——以及在他深入研究理解和失去的孪生体时使复杂变得易于理解的天赋。 作者透露,悲伤可能是一个充满可能性的时刻。

 

作者将悲伤视为对不可逆转的环境变化的回应。这种重构使我们能够看到失去亲人或事业与失去第一次理解一个棘手概念时的欣喜若狂之间的相似之处。在此基础上,作者构建了心理状态的几何模型。例如,分形物体具有放大对称性:放大山或蕨叶的图片——两者都是分形的——我们会看到原始形状的回声。同样,嵌套在大损失中的是较小的损失。通过操纵这种几何形状,作者向我们展示了我们可能能够以有助于减轻痛苦的方式重新定向我们的思维。小规模损失本质上为实验室提供了学习如何应对大规模损失的机会。

 

作者穿插了原创插图、对几何高级主题的清晰介绍以及从他自己的疾病经历和其他人对毁灭性损失的非凡反应中汲取的智慧,是一次穿越数学和生活美丽复杂性的旅程。凭借人类的同情心和几何学的优雅,它帮助我们了解悲伤的几何学如何为大胆行动开辟道路。


目录:

Prologue
1          Geometry
2          Grief
3          Beauty
4          Story
5          Fractal
6          Beyond
Appendix: More Math
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

 

好评:

“With poignancy and audacity, Frame builds an unexpected bridge between mathematical beauty and human sorrow, illuminating both.”-- Francis Su, author of "Mathematics for Human Flourishing"

 

“I expected to enjoy the experience of thinking in fresh ways with Frame about grief—and encountering his love of cats, really of all nature, made manifest on the page. What blew me away were the exciting new connections among love, grief, beauty, and resilience that flowered in my mind as I read. Immersed in Frame’s world of geometry, including fractals, and its applications to real-world emotions, I sometimes felt afloat in a mysterious, and always inviting, dream. It’s a beautiful place for all of us to spend time.”-- Barbara J. King, author of "How Animals Grieve"

 

“With concision and compassion, Frame shows how a mathematical mind makes sense of a grieving heart. The result is a peculiar, wise, and beautiful book.”-- Ben Orlin, author of "Math with Bad Drawings" and "Change Is the Only Constant"

 

“A unique, meaningful, and moving work that connects the irreversibility of loss that comes with grief and the irreversibility of first deeply understanding something—particularly something mathematical.”-- Susan Jane Colley, Oberlin College, editor of "American Mathematical Monthly"

 

“Frame believes everyone can fall in love with math if it’s presented with empathy and humor and clarity and context. He portrays math as math-lovers know it: a beautiful garden, a place of curiosity and delight, a tribute to human creativity and the wonders of nature.”-- Steven Strogatz, from the foreword to "Fractal Worlds"

 

关于作者:

Michael Frame 于 2016 年退休,担任耶鲁大学数学兼职教授。他是 Fractal Worlds: Grown, Built, and Imagined 的合著者和 Benoit Mandelbrot: A Life in Many Dimensions 的共同编辑。