Greetings to one and all, and welcome to Mathyrious!! This website is for those who are interested in understanding the concepts that form the theoretical underpinnings of mathematics without necessarily wishing to engage in the nuts and bolts calculations that applying those cconcepts might entail. Unfortunately, even those engaging in the least intensive interpretation of such a project are often discouraged by a barrage of technical jargon, arcane symbolism, and theorems that appear to violate common sense. I will use my humble corner of the internet to post my own musings on such matters and hopefully dispel some of the confusion.
Mathyrious, the title I have given to this website and its accompanying YouTube channel, is a conflation of the words mathematics and mysterious. This title alludes to the aura of hidden truths that has always accompanied mathematics in general and its pure (rather than applied) form in particular. This website’s motto (… exploring the web of pure mathematics) highlights the interconnected nature of those truths.
There are many content creators on YouTube and elsewhere who provide excellent, straightforward expositions at varying levels of mathematical maturity. I do not seek to repeat what has been presented satisfactorily elsewhere. My intent is to focus upon developments in pure mathematics within a broader context of intellectual trendsnd how it interacted with theoretical ideas within philosophy, science, religion, and other intellectual pursuits.
The importance of mathematics in applied science is well documented and its fruits self evident to anyone who has followed the development of information technology over the last century. I am more interested in its position within theoretical knowledge and how it influenced (and was influenced by) broader historical, philosophical, and cultural currents. Mathematicians do not operate in a cultural vacuum, and a closer examination should offer insight into the mindset that produced the current consensus among mathematicians.
For transparency’s sake, I wish to make clear that I am not a mathematician. I am an amateur who is fascinated by mathematics and its place in the Western intellectual tradition. Thus, I will approach mathematics more from its traditional role in the liberal arts than from its contemporary position within STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). This also explains my particular emphasis on mathematics in its pure rather than applied form.
While I have tried to keep prior mathematical knowledge to a minimum, there must be some expectations of a shared background. I will presume readers have some familiarity with material usually covered in primary and secondary school mathematics curricula. This would include basic arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. This material will be reviewed as necessary.
There are eight planned content areas on this website as follows:
● News
● Blog
● Notes
● Quizzes
● Books
● Articles
● Videos
● Links
A menu bar appears on the right-hand side of each page for access to the home page and the main page for each area.
The Blog and Notes areas will contain the website’s primary content. Posts on the Blog will generally be intuitive discussions and opinions intended to be self-contained without any attempt at a comprehensive treatment with the latter treatments reserved for the Notes. As such, topics will often be initially discussed in the Blog in some capacity prior to the fuller discussion posted in the Notes. .
The first entry in Notes, titled General Introduction, is intended to familiarize those new to the website with the perspectives taken here and serve as the suggested starting point beyond this homepage. As the Notes section covers specific areas of mathematics, you can assess your understanding of the material in the Quizzes area.
Additional areas include recommended Books, Articles, and Links on mathematics and related fields. Selected material from the website serves as the source for videos on the Mathyrious YouTube channel and is mirrored in the Videos area on this website. The content is not the videos’ script but their basis. Some videos may expand on the material if I think additional background is necessary.
This website will begin going online in the coming months, and all areas should be functional by the end of 2026.