--- product_id: 8906856 title: "Naive Lie Theory (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics)" price: "₱7726" currency: PHP in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.ph/products/8906856-naive-lie-theory-undergraduate-texts-in-mathematics store_origin: PH region: Philippines --- # Naive Lie Theory (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics) **Price:** ₱7726 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Naive Lie Theory (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics) - **How much does it cost?** ₱7726 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.ph](https://www.desertcart.ph/products/8906856-naive-lie-theory-undergraduate-texts-in-mathematics) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description In this new textbook, acclaimed author John Stillwell presents a lucid introduction to Lie theory suitable for junior and senior level undergraduates. In order to achieve this, he focuses on the so-called "classical groups'' that capture the symmetries of real, complex, and quaternion spaces. These symmetry groups may be represented by matrices, which allows them to be studied by elementary methods from calculus and linear algebra. This naive approach to Lie theory is originally due to von Neumann, and it is now possible to streamline it by using standard results of undergraduate mathematics. To compensate for the limitations of the naive approach, end of chapter discussions introduce important results beyond those proved in the book, as part of an informal sketch of Lie theory and its history. John Stillwell is Professor of Mathematics at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of several highly regarded books published by Springer, including The Four Pillars of Geometry (2005), Elements of Number Theory (2003), Mathematics and Its History (Second Edition, 2002), Numbers and Geometry (1998) and Elements of Algebra (1994). Review: Naive but not too naive. And good printing quality as of January 2022 - After a first look through of this book, it quickly becomes apparent that even though this is a naive approach to lie theory, it is still not for the beginner. You will need a good understanding of linear algebra and calculus as the author presents the information of lie theory in terms of these two subjects. Good groundings in group theory and topology would also probably be good before picking this book up. If you know these subjects well, then this book is great to introduce this branch of mathematics. If you are worried about knowing the prerequisites well enough (like I did), look at the contents up to section 2.2, and if you are vaguely familiar with those topics, you should be completely fine reading this. Also after looking at other reviews, it seems that springer has fixed their quality issues on the book. My only complaint on the quality is on the side of desertcart as they put a paper sticker on the back (which I hate) that peels off poorly and left a residue. Review: Spectacular introduction to Lie groups and algebras - Let me start by stating my point of view: I'm a math grad student, so I'm not really the nominal audience for the book (the book is targeted toward undergraduates). Having said that, I found this book to be wonderfully conversational in tone, amusing, very honest (if there is slogging to be done in a proof, the author says so, and if the author leaves something out he tells you why), and very useful in gaining an intuitive feel for the material. The prerequisites for this book are very modest: if you've seen linear algebra and calculus, then you could give it a go. Some sort of exposure to abstract algebra of some sort would be useful, but may not be required. Some intuition for manifolds is is similarly useful, but certainly not required. Even with these modest prerequisites, the author manages to do much with Lie Theory. This is a jewel of a book, much like its spiritual predecessor, Halmos's Naive Set Theory (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics) . So, this book is accessible, well written and useful. What more could you ask for in an introduction? ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #816,940 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #73 in Group Theory (Books) #152 in Topology (Books) #710 in Algebra & Trigonometry | | Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 74 Reviews | ## Images ![Naive Lie Theory (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/518PKUKGhzL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Naive but not too naive. And good printing quality as of January 2022 *by Z***T on January 17, 2022* After a first look through of this book, it quickly becomes apparent that even though this is a naive approach to lie theory, it is still not for the beginner. You will need a good understanding of linear algebra and calculus as the author presents the information of lie theory in terms of these two subjects. Good groundings in group theory and topology would also probably be good before picking this book up. If you know these subjects well, then this book is great to introduce this branch of mathematics. If you are worried about knowing the prerequisites well enough (like I did), look at the contents up to section 2.2, and if you are vaguely familiar with those topics, you should be completely fine reading this. Also after looking at other reviews, it seems that springer has fixed their quality issues on the book. My only complaint on the quality is on the side of Amazon as they put a paper sticker on the back (which I hate) that peels off poorly and left a residue. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Spectacular introduction to Lie groups and algebras *by J***L on June 12, 2010* Let me start by stating my point of view: I'm a math grad student, so I'm not really the nominal audience for the book (the book is targeted toward undergraduates). Having said that, I found this book to be wonderfully conversational in tone, amusing, very honest (if there is slogging to be done in a proof, the author says so, and if the author leaves something out he tells you why), and very useful in gaining an intuitive feel for the material. The prerequisites for this book are very modest: if you've seen linear algebra and calculus, then you could give it a go. Some sort of exposure to abstract algebra of some sort would be useful, but may not be required. Some intuition for manifolds is is similarly useful, but certainly not required. Even with these modest prerequisites, the author manages to do much with Lie Theory. This is a jewel of a book, much like its spiritual predecessor, Halmos's Naive Set Theory (Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics) . So, this book is accessible, well written and useful. What more could you ask for in an introduction? ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Solid book, but the emphasis on quaternions was unwelcome *by N***E on September 11, 2013* The theory is well taught and developed. I found that this book yielded more understanding than the more calculation based references written for physics. As an applied math reader, I feel as if dozens of pages were wasted on proofs that didn't do much, but I suppose I'll give in to the pure mathematician point of view here. My biggest criticism is the heavy use of quaternions. The book introduced two concepts that readers likely aren't familiar with, quaternions and lie groups, and tried to use one to build understand of the other. However, I found this to be of little benefit. The analogies were nice to point out and it was interesting to see the coexistence, but Stillwell took concepts of extreme value and practical use (Lie groups) and obscured them by describing them in terms of often forgotten and little practical use (quaternions.) As if you wanted to learn a second language, Spanish for example, and the instructor insisted that you used an English -> medieval Latin dictionary followed by a medieval Latin -> Spanish dictionary. The book is a very good book, but with the removal of quaternion emphasis and pedantic proofs in exchange for further developed theory, this book would have been one of my favorites. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.ph/products/8906856-naive-lie-theory-undergraduate-texts-in-mathematics](https://www.desertcart.ph/products/8906856-naive-lie-theory-undergraduate-texts-in-mathematics) --- *Product available on Desertcart Philippines* *Store origin: PH* *Last updated: 2026-09-12*