Product Description

In 1931 Kurt Godel published his fundamental paper, "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems". This revolutionary paper challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. Godel received public recognition of his work in 1951 when he was awarded the first Albert Einstein Award for Achievement in the Natural Sciences - perhaps the highest award of its kind in the United States. The award committee described his work in mathematical logic as "one of the greatest contributions to the sciences in recent times". However, few mathematicians of the time were equipped to understand the young scholar's complex proof. Ernest Nagel and James Newman provide a readable and accessible explanation to both scholars and non-specialists of the main ideas and broad implications of Godel's discovery. It offers every educated person with a taste for logic and philosophy the chance to understand a previously difficult and inaccessible subject.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #116112 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 125 pages

Customer Reviews

An excellent guide to Gödel
Simply magnificent. This book meets and exceeds the description on its back cover -- offering "any educated person with a taste for logic and philosophy the chance to satisfy his intellectual curiosity about a previously inaccessible subject." This book gives anyone with the interest and the motivation a solid, if not complete, understanding of the ideas underlying the proof. While it's true that someone very unfamiliar with mathematics (or, more importantly, with logic and mathematical thinking) would not get as much out of the book, it does a very good job of walking the reader through Gödel's complex but breathtakingly elegant reasoning. I wholeheartedly recommend this book.

A Very Good Introduction
I Read this book in an afternoon. While this book covers many of Godels ideas, concepts, and systematically works throught the incompleteness theory, it does however lack the fine detail of the actual theorem. I recomend this book for those who wish to find out aout Godels Proof, without wanting the know the fine details.

Outstanding introductory text
For those interested, but uninitiated, in the philosophy of mathematics or mathematical philosophy should seriously consider reading this excellent introductory text. In a highly concise and lucid manner, the authors successfully explain the origins, development and details of Godel's proof and examine some of the wider implication of it.

It is not, however, particularly easy reading. Unlike reading a novel, it requires some effort to fully understand and grapple with the strange but intriguing concepts discussed. No background or logic necessary; technicalities are generally avoided.

All in all, outstanding. Well worth buying.