I read many of Richard Fenynman's books and I found them both very entertaining and moving, showing the human side of a brilliant scientific mind. I recently read also a collection of P.A.M. Dirac's writings on the topic of beauty and mathematical truth. I personally find that reading good non-technical books about personal histories, biographies, ways of conceiving the universe written by great scientists is always very enlightening. Feynman and Dirac represent (mostly) a physic's point of view, so I'd be interested in reading some thoughts from great mathematicians.
So my question is: could you please suggest good books of this kind? The constraints are the following:
- the author is a great mathematician (universally acknowledged as such)
- the book/writing is not a paper, i.e. it's not a technical essay on some of the author's research;
- the main topic of the book/writing is the author's world view, philosophical thoughts, considerations about mathematics et similia.
An example of such a book could be Science et Hypothèse by Henri Poincaré.
Best Answer
Indiscrete Thoughts by Gian-Carlo Rota.
I Want to be a Mathematician: An Automathography by Halmos.