Euclid's Elements Paperback – January 1, 2002

All 13 books in one, nice big words and graphs, high quality materials. Book not too big or heavy.

I bought this for a course at Hillsdale college called “Mathematics & Logic”, or something to that effect. The course is free, so why not become totally immersed in the content by getting the book. Plus, I love books!Anyway, I can’t follow it really, but the language is absolutely beautiful! Euclid’s Elements was required curricula in schools from its writing up until the early 1900’s, I believe. It was removed, as apparently they didn’t believe it was useful any longer. I also believe that we have several failing generations (of which I am a member), because this text has been largely lost to time. The logical arguments in this text are sometimes hard to understand/grasp, but training oneself to understand them, can lead one to develop actual “critical thinking” skills. Being horrible in mathematics, such as myself, may actually stem from being “memory trained” in public schools, rather than being trained in understanding logical arguments, in the way people were trained pre-1900’s.I can’t follow it too well, mainly because I grew up in the 80’s/90’s and I never met a single person that spoke so eloquently, or had the ability to “think around corners” in the manner this book teaches. I love it though, and will keep it on my bookshelf with all the other classics that I can’t quite follow, but love to try!

Bought a personal and one for my college. Very good read!

Euclid's Elements is one of the most beautiful books in Western thought. Each proposition falls out of the last in perfect logical progression. One might be worried, since it is a math book. "High school geometry sucked!" I hear you cry. Let us be clear: this is not a math textbook. It is math at its finest. All the basic theorems you learned in that miserable high school class are proven within the first four books. Then come ratios. And numbers. You even get to build an tetrahedron in a sphere. Hate math? Buy this book and realize what math truly is.As for this particular edition, it is a lovely example of a book. The binding is excellent and stands up quite well to the test of time. I've been using my copy extensively for a year and it still looks brand-new. In addition, the diagrams repeat if necessary on different pages. This is appreciated, especially in longer propositions. Definitions are numbered, which is helpful for classroom discussion, and there is a Greek (and English) glossary at the end which is extremely helpful if one needs to know a particular word for a mathematical term or for looking up propositions centered around a certain mathematical object. Overall, a great edition that makes Euclid's Elements even better.

No doubt this is a precious edition, but the recent one by Richard Fitzpatrick in Greek and English is really astounding (and affordable), especially the version in 4 volumes, where a full page (and more than one if needed) is generously given to each proposition.OTH I find the classical Heath/Dover edition an essential reference, precisely for the illuminating Heath's interspersed commentary. In fact Heath's "A History of Greek Mathematics" and the shorter "A Manual of Greek Mathematics" are just as essential to a better understanding of Euclid, and of course Greek Mathematics.As a complementary/companion reading I would heartily recommend Benno Artmann's excellent "Euclid - The Creation of Mathematics", priceless, if only, for its bibliography.An indispensable and brilliant mathematical "guided reading" based on the development of Greek Mathematics, fundamental for an overall understanding of the Elements, is B. L. van der Waerden's "Science Awakening" (1954, out of print, but still possible to find).A philological approach, incredibly rich in its revelations about the Elements and early Greek Mathematics in general is Arpad Szabo's "The Beginnings of Greek Mathematics" (very expensive!, but worth every penny).An then there's David Fowler's "The Mathematics of Plato's Academy", an up-to-date comprehensive account on Greek Mathematics of the time, and Euclid of course.Just a final, more general comment. Through its many layers Euclid's Elements is a key to the better understanding of our deepest roots. I myself discovered it late in my life and cannot believe what I missed. I now understand that the fundamentals of Ancient Greece - and consequently ours - cannot be fully grasped without this book. It would be no exaggeration to affirm that Plato and Aristotle are not fully intelligible without Euclid and that, in general, without knowledge of the Elements Ancient Greece would be just a "shadow of the past", devoid of the sparkling light cast by its mathematics and science.