Incompleteness: The Proof and Paradox of Kurt Godel (Great Discoveries Series)

by Rebecca Goldstein

Overview

"A gem…An unforgettable account of one of the great moments in the history of human thought." —Steven PinkerProbing the life and work of Kurt Gödel, Incompleteness indelibly portrays the tortured genius whose vision rocked the stability of mathematical reasoning—and brought him to the edge of madness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393327601
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	02/06/2006
Series:	Great Discoveries Series
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Rebecca Goldstein is a MacArthur Fellow, a professor of philosophy, and the author of five novels and a collection of short stories. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Editorial Reviews

Gödel's torment and his genius. By the book's end, we understand well why Einstein would look forward to 'the privilege of walking home with Gödel,' and we can't help but wish that we'd been able to join them.

Brian Greene

In this penetrating, accessible, and beautifully written book, Rebecca Goldstein explores not only the work of one of the greatest mathematicians but also the relation of the human mind to the world around it.

Alan Lightman

Godel's Incompleteness Theorem, which proved that no formal mathematical system can demonstrate every mathematical truth, is a landmark of modern thought. It's a simple but profound statement, but the technicalities of Godel's proof are forbidding. If MacArthur Fellow and Whiting-winning novelist and philosopher Goldstein (The Mind-Body Problem) doesn't quite succeed in explaining the proof's mechanics to lay readers, she does a magnificent job of exploring its rich philosophical implications. Postmodernists have appropriated it to undermine science's claims of certainty, objectivity and rationality, but Godel insisted, to the contrary, that the theorem buttresses a Platonist conception of a transcendent mathematical reality that exists independent of human logic. Goldstein is an excellent choice for this installment of Norton's Great Discoveries series, which seeks to explain the ways of science to humanists. Her philosophical background makes her a sure guide to the underlying ideas, and she brings a novelistic depth of character and atmosphere to her account of the positivist intellectual milieu surrounding Godel (including a caustic portrait of philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein) and to her sympathetic depiction of the logician's tortured psyche, as his relentless search for logical patterns behind life's contingencies gradually darkened into paranoia. The result is a stimulating exploration of both the power and the limitations of the human intellect. Photos. Agent, Tina Bennett. (Feb.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

A novelist and professor specializing in philosophy of science, MacArthur Fellow Goldstein reprises the life of mystical mathematician Godel. With a six-city author tour. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal