这是一本为广大读者，特别是那些对过去的经历感到失望的人而写的书，在这本影响深刻的书中，一位获奖（美国数学协会颁发的欧拉图书奖）数学家和教育家将寓言、谜题和个人反思编织在一起，展示了数学如何满足人类的基本欲望--如游戏、美、自由、正义和爱，以及培养人类繁荣所必需的美德。这些欲望和美德，以及书中讲述的故事，揭示了数学是如何与人类紧密相连的。

In this profound book, written for a wide audience but especially for those disenchanted by their past experiences, an award‑winning mathematician and educator weaves parables, puzzles, and personal reflections to show how mathematics meets basic human desires—such as for play, beauty, freedom, justice, and love—and cultivates virtues essential for human flourishing. These desires and virtues, and the stories told here, reveal how mathematics is intimately tied to being human. Some lessons emerge from those who have struggled, including philosopher Simone Weil, whose own mathematical contributions were overshadowed by her brother’s, and Christopher Jackson, who discovered mathematics as an inmate in a federal prison. Christopher’s letters to the author appear throughout the book and sho