Williamsburg Regional Library

Journey to the edge of reason, the life of Kurt Gödel, Stephen Budiansky

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 313-325) and index

individual biography

illustrationsmaps

index present

non fiction

Journey to the edge of reason

bibliography

1196176461

Stephen Budiansky

the life of Kurt Gödel

"The first major biography of the logician and mathematician whose incompleteness theorems helped launch a modern scientific revolution. Nearly a hundred years after its publication, Kurt Gödel's famous proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true--yet never provable--continues to unsettle mathematics, philosophy, and computer science. Yet unlike Einstein, with whom he formed a warm and abiding friendship, Gödel has long escaped all but the most casual scrutiny of his life. An intimate portrait of the scientific and intellectual circles in prewar Vienna and a vivid re-creation of the early days of Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study, Journey to the Edge of Reason is the first biography to fully draw upon Gödel's voluminous letters and writings--including a never-before-transcribed shorthand diary of his most intimate thoughts--to explore his profound intellectual friendships, his moving relationship with his mother, his troubled yet devoted marriage, and the debilitating bouts of paranoia that ultimately took his life. It illuminates the mind-bending implications of Gödel's revolutionary ideas for philosophy, mathematics, artificial intelligence, and man's place in the cosmos"--, Provided by publisher

Prologue -- Dreams of an empire -- Alle echten Wiener sind aus Brünn -- Vienna 1924 -- Floating in midair -- Undecidable truths -- The scholar's paradise -- Fleeing the Reich -- New worlds -- Plato's shadow -- "If the world is constructed rationally" -- Appendix: Gödel's proof

adult