I’m gonna be honest y’all, all throughout my life people have given me so much shit for asking why something happens- repeatedly calling me childlike, telling me that’s just the way it is, it is what it is, etc. Shit sucks
Bringing this back to math though, the best math teachers I’ve ever had didn’t see a problem with providing the “why” and when that was given, I kinda succeeded. Who could’ve guessed, I didn’t hate math and thought there was a chance that I could do it if someone explained it in my language!
Trying to relearn some stuff for my own benefit, thought this new comm might be a good place to start my journey so let me know if you have any suggestions!
What sort of "why" are you wanting/looking for? Like foundational logic and how to prove things, maybe even some set theory? Intuitive explanations of math you have already learned to help it click(what specific math is that, precalc? calc? algebraic topology?)? What is [Insert math here] use in the real world and why learn it(what math do you want to learn for that)?
I haven't read it (but I would be willing to to give a bit of a better report) but I have heard good things about Measurement by Lockhart and his other book Arithmetic. They are more conversational approaches, and not really textbooks but my understanding is they are meant to give "real" understanding of "basic math". Could be worth looking into to see if that sounds like the type of book you want. Lockhart is known for his 25 page essay A Mathematician's Lament which very critical of (math) education, and gives a bit of his philosophy on it so that could give you an idea of his approach(it has been over a decade since I have read it but I remember liking)
I will check those out, thank ya!
To answer your question though, yeah I’m probably looking for set theory/proofs.
I don’t know much about math in general (stalled out at college algebra then barely made it through discrete) but I’m sorta speaking in the context of what is true and what is *false, which is self-explanatory in proofs