Symmetry is one of the ideas by which man through the ages has tried to comprehend and create order, beauty, and perfection. Starting from the view thatsymmetry = harmony of proportions, this book gradually develops first the geometric concept of symmetry in its several forms as bilateral, translatory, rotational, ornamental, and crystallographic symmetry, and finally rises to the general abstract mathematical idea underlying all these special forms. This first paperback version of Hermann Weyl's widely-read essay includes the beautiful illustrations of the cloth cover edition.

This original anthology collects 11 of Weyl's less-technical writings that address the broader scope and implications of mathematics. Most have been long unavailable or not previously published in book form. Subjects include logic, topology, abstract algebra, relativity theory, and reflections on the work of Weyl's mentor, David Hilbert. 2012 edition.

La scelta di proporre questa raccolta di saggi nasce da un'esigenza di natura essenzialmente culturale; se infatti Hermann Weyl può essere forse noto a matematici e fisici, lo è certo meno a chi si occupa di filosofia. E, tuttavia, Weyl mostra di ritenere importante, proprio per la definizione di nozioni e concetti essenziali ai suoi studi, il confronto con le questioni e i metodi della filosofia. Il richiamo che egli dedica a protagonisti di prim'ordine come Husserl, Brouwer, Hilbert, Kant non pare allora essere riducibile a un semplice riferimento erudito. Weyl sembra innanzitutto condividere coi i suoi autorevoli interlocutori un certo senso e una certa funzione della riflessione filosofica la quale, come analisi critica e concettuale, ha il compito primo di scomporre i problemi chiarendone condizioni di possibilità e presupposti, per poi condensarli in domande adeguate.

When mathematician Hermann Weyl decided to write a book on philosophy, he faced what he referred to as 'conflicts of conscience'--the objective nature of science, he felt, did not mesh easily with the incredulous, uncertain nature of philosophy. Yet the two disciplines were already intertwined. In Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science, Weyl examines how advances in philosophy were led by scientific discoveries--the more humankind understood about the physical world, the more curious we became. The book is divided into two parts, one on mathematics and the other on the physical sciences. Drawing on work by Descartes, Galileo, Hume, Kant, Leibniz, and Newton, Weyl provides readers with a guide to understanding science through the lens of philosophy. This is a book that no one but Weyl could have written--and, indeed, no one has written anything quite like it since.

Defines symmetry through a discussion of its many uses in a wide variety of fields both academic and natural