Experiencing mathematics. What do we do, when we do mathematics? (Q2870399)

In this book, the author collected papers written over several decades and added some new chapters. Hersh is part of a group of philosophers who attempt to find answers to the philosophical questions concerning mathematics by analyzing mathematical practice. Hersh rejects the views of Platonists, intuitionists and formalists. He argues that mathematical objects are a special variety of social-cultural-historical objects, that mathematical knowledge is fallible, that there are different versions of proof depending on time, place and other things. Briefly: mathematics is a very human enterprise. In this very well written book he treats many of the aspects of real mathematics. Yet sometimes his solutions seem too easy. Mathematics is for Hersh the study of the lawful, predictable parts of the social conceptual world. Why these parts exist is for him a fruitless question. Someone who is intrigued by the certainty, complexity and objectivity of modern mathematics might feel dissatisfied.