1
$\begingroup$

I'm learning linear algebra at the moment, so I'm looking for some great old classic books. Something like Fermat's or Gauss books of some great mathematians.

I don't really like the nowadays books of Gilbert Strand style... I'm looking for the more philosophical aspects of the subject.

Thank, Itamar.

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
3
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Why do you think that old books will do better at covering "the more philosophical aspects" of the subject? Have you ever tried to read Muir's book on determinants? $\endgroup$
    – Lazzaro Campeotti
    Commented Jul 22, 2015 at 11:56
  • $\begingroup$ If you want philosophy per se, Grassmann had a large section at the beginning of the first edition of his archive.org/details/dielinealeausde00grasgoog He removed it in the second edition because it confused readers. You would need to read that, or grab the translation from your U library: the open court translation amazon.com/New-Branch-Mathematics-Ausdehnungslehre-Other/dp/… $\endgroup$
    – Gottfried William
    Commented Jul 22, 2015 at 12:33
  • 7
    $\begingroup$ I didn't know there were philosophical aspects of Linear Algebra. $\endgroup$
    – Gerry Myerson
    Commented Jul 22, 2015 at 12:48

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3
$\begingroup$

I guess you are looking for something along these lines:

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
3
$\begingroup$

A more "modern" book than those already mentioned is the one by Paul Halmos here. This was first published in 1942 in the Annals of Math. Studies series, with a later edition in 1958; that edition was reprinted as a Springer "undergraduate" text. It was actually my first encounter with linear algebra (late in college) and approaches the subject in the coordinate-free spirit of infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces. It's very far away from the spirit of contemporary textbooks---even Strang, which is fairly difficult for most sophomores but also fairly concrete. Halmos was himself mostly involved in the study of linear operators on infinite dimensional spaces, but he was a good communicator with a style of his own (and an avid amateur photographer, whose photo of me may still exist somewhere out there).

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .