Apology of Mathematics

People and animals, plants, buildings, works of art can be beautiful—but can mathematics be beautiful? Godfrey Hardy, who called his profession pure mathematics, left the world a remarkable work that is still popular among enthusiasts of the exact sciences worldwide,... titled Apology of Mathematics, dedicated to a peculiar philosophy of mathematics—a pure science, a brilliant game of the mind, a free flight of intellectual imagination, which the author likened to the inspiration of a poet, artist, or chess player. The main object of his admiration, his muse, becomes number theory—mathematics for the sake of mathematics, the scientific equivalent of the long-cherished pure art beloved by the British. Mathematics, devoid of applied triviality and ugliness, is beautiful, among other things, also because it is incapable of bringing harm to humanity.